i£x  ICtbrta 


SEYMOUR  DURST 


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THE 


Wizard  of  Wall  Street 

AND  HIS  WEALTH, 

OR 

THE  LIFE  AND  DEEDS  OF  JAY  GOULD 

BY 

TRUMBULL  WHITE. 


JOHN  C.  YORSTON  &  CO., 
PHILADELPHIA,  PA. 
1893. 


Copyright,  1892, 
By  MID-CONTINENT  PUBLISHING  CO. 


PREFACE, 


The  history  of  any  man  who  had  been  able  to 
distinguish  himself  by  acquiring  in  his  lifetime  the 
greatest  amount  of  wealth  ever  accumulated  by  one 
man,  would  necessarily  be  of  interest,  even  if  his 
success  had  been  won  by  the  most  ordinary  of 
methods  or  the  most  marvelous  succession  of  good 
fortune.  But  when  that  man  is  one  whose  career 
was  full  of  the  most  dramatic  incidents;  when 
he  won  his  wealth  by  feats  of  financial  daring 
which  astounded  the  world;  when,  in  short,  that 
man  is  Jay  Gould,  "The  Wizard  of  Wall  Street,"  then, 
mdeed,  the  interest  is  most  absorbing.  Jay  Gould 
has  been  more  prominently  before  the  people  of 
the  country  for  the  last  few  years  than  has  any  other 
man  whose  prominence  depended  upon  the  magni- 
tude of  his  fortune.  In  his  history  is  much  to  be 
learned,  both  for  imitation  and  avoidance,  by  every 
American.  This  volume  contains,  not  only  a  com- 
plete account  of  the  life  and  deeds  of  Jay  Gould 
for  the  general  reader,  but  also  much  for  the 
student  of  financial  affairs  and  Wall  street  methods. 
The  particular  effort  of  the  author  has  been  to  se- 
cure its  absolute  accuracy  and  to  make  it  entirely 
reliable.  The  present  absorbing  interest  in  the 
career  of  the  great  financier,  and  the  fact  that  every 
source  of  information  concerning  him  is  being 
sought  most  eagerly,  makes  the  work  particularly 
timely. 

TRUMBULL  WHITE. 
Chicago,  December  15,  1892. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAP.  PAGE* 

I.  Jay  Gould  a  Great  Man   9 

II.   Youth  and  Ancestry  of  Jay  Gould  , , . ,  18 

III.  Grould  as  Surveyor  and  Historian   29 

IV.  Gould  and  the  Tannery  War  37 

V.  Gould's  Romantic  Marriage  and  First  Railroad. .  49 
VI.  Gould's  Assault  upon  Erie   58 

VII.   Gould's  Victory  and  Final  Defeat  in  Erie   73 

VIII.  The  Gold  Conspiracy   88 

IX.   Culmination  of  Conspiracy — Black  Friday  106 

X.   Gould  and  the  Western  Railway  Systems  132 

XI.   Gould  and  the  Telegraph  Monopoly  151 

XII.   Gould  and  the  Manhattan  Elevated  161 

XIII.  The  Life  of  a  Wall  Street  King  170 

XIV.  The  King  is  Dead  181 

XV.  Jay  Gould  Laid  to  Rest  193 

XVI.   Personal  Characteristics  of  Jay  Gould  214 

XVIL  The  Family  of  Jay  Gould  226 

XVIII.   The  Great  Fortune  and  Its  Inheritors  245 

XIX.   Jay  Gould's  Relations  with  the  Public  264 

XX.  A  Chapter  of  Anecdotes  280 

S 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 

PA6S 

Portrait  op  Jay  Gould  Frontispiece 

Young  Gould  in  His  Father's  Dairy...   18 

Jay  Gould  as  a  Surveyor   29 

Canvassing  for  His  Book,  "The  History  of  Dela- 
ware County"   32 

The  Tannery  War  in  Pennsylvania   37 

Gould's  First  Glimpse  of  His  Future  Wife   49 

The  Men  of  "Black  Friday"   88 

"Black  Friday"  in  Wall  Street   106 

Gould  Before  the  Congressional  Committee   132 

Gould  Fainting  at  Directors'  Meeting  in  Russell 

Sage's  Office   161 

Gould's  Birthplace  and  Palace  on  the  Hudson..  170 

Jay  Gould's  Death-bed   181 

Funeral  of  Jay  Gould   193 

Where  Jay  Gould  Rests   200 

A  Family  Group   226 

Portrait  of  George  Gould  *   245 

Jay  Gould's  Private  Car  and  Yacht,  "Atalanta".  264 

7 


CHAPTER  I. 


JAY  GOULD  A  GREAT  MAN. 

IN  every  walk  of  human  life,  in  every  imaginable 
human  occupation,  that  man  who  stands  at  the 
very  top,  who  is  superior  to  all  others  in  that  partic- 
ular occupation,  is  of  necessity  a  great  man.  No 
matter  how  humble  that  occupation  may  be,  abso- 
lute superiority  in  it,  in  itself  means  greatness.  The 
time  once  was  when  commercial  eminence  was  con- 
sidered to  belong  rather  to  the  lower  classes,  and 
was,  indeed,  despised  by  those  who  thought  them- 
selves to  be  of  knightlier  blood  than  their  fellows. 
The  Crusades,  the  Renaissance,  the  discovery  of 
America,  and  the  impetus  these  gave  to  voyage  and 
trade  and  commerce,  were  potent  factors  in  changing 
all  of  this.  For  the  last  few  centuries,  commercial 
ability,  financial  c,apacity,  knowledge  of  how  to 
manipulate  men  and  measures  in  a  way  to  increase 
fortune,  and  so  to  secure  more  of  what  fortune  will 
buy,  have  been  more  and  more  appreciated,  until 
to-day  aristocracy  and  royalty  clip  coupons,  families 
whose  ancestors  trace  from  the  Conqueror  invest  in 
stocks  and  draw  dividends,  and  the  bluest  blooded 
of  all  great  families  engage  with  avidity  in  the  strug- 
gle for  business  and  wealth. 

Since  royalty  and  aristocracy  thus  deign  to  enter 

9 


10 


JAY  GOULD  A  GREAT  MAN. 


the  lists  of  business  competition,  does  it  not  become 
more  true  that  that  man  is  really  great,  who  excels 
in  money-making  capacity  every  other  individual  in 
the  world,  who  wins  the  prize  from  all  his  high  com- 
petitors, and  in  his  lifetime,  by  his  own  acumen  and 
manipulation,  creates  a  greater  fortune,  adds  more 
to  his  wealth,  than  has  ever  any  other  person  in  the 
world?  That  is  what  has  been  done  by  Jay  Gould, 
"  The  Wizard  of  Wall  Street,"  who  has  just  been 
taken  from  the  possession  of  this  enormous  wealth, 
and  whose  death  has  awakened  such  universal  inter- 
est in  his  life,  his  history  and  his  personality. 

It  is  hard  to  realize  what  an  enormous.distinction 
is  in  the  fact  of  being  the  richest  man  in  the  world. 
For  Gould  not  only  created  his  fortune,  but  he  made 
it  greater  than  is  possessed  by  any  other  individual 
in  the  world.  It  is  true  that  there  are  families,  the 
Vanderbilts,  the  Astors,  and  the  Rothschilds,  whose 
aggregated  wealth  far  exceeds  the  fortune  left  by 
Mr.  Gould.  But  no  individual  of  one  of  those  fam- 
ilies possesses  an  amount  nearly  equal  to  that  repre- 
sented by  the  Gould  properties.  Mr.  Gould  has 
been  absolutely  unrivaled  in  his  position  as  a  money- 
maker. Though  he  has  met  with  reverses  at  times, 
and  was  once  on  the  verge  of  actual  bankruptcy, 
these  have  been  due,  in  slight  degree,  to  the  action 
of  his  opponents  in  the  market,  but  rather  to  some 
relaxation  of  his  own  energies,  or  some  unforeseen 
combination  of  circumstances.  The  men  who  have 
been  against  him,  with  few  exceptions,  have  lost 
while  he  has  won.    To  be  wealthy  and  to  play  with 


JAY  GOULD  A  GREAT  MAN. 


II 


the  Gould  securities,  it  has  been  necessary  to  follow 
him,  not  to  oppose. 

In  downright  dramatic  interest,  in  its  exhibition 
of  results  achieved  through  the  exercise  of  intellect- 
ual qualities  which  were  themselves  an  achievement, 
and  in  the  examples  which  it  furnishes  of  the  con- 
sistent development  of  traits  which  can  scarcely  be 
considered  as  the  dower  of  heredity,  and  yet  were 
already  apparent  at  the  outset,  the  life  story  of  Jay 
Gould  surpasses  by  far  the  histories  of  the  great  finan- 
ciers, speculators  and  railway  managers  with  whom 
he  was  either  directly  or  remotely  associated  in  a 
career  which  practically  embraced  the  whole  modern 
phase  of  financial  operation.  Like  Drew,  Vander- 
bilt  and  Fisk,  he  was  of  humble  origin  and  began  at 
an  early  age  to  carve  out  his  fortunes  on  lines  which 
lay  far  from  those  to  which  his  youthful  surround- 
ings seemed  to  direct  him.  But  his  first  exhibitions 
of  independent  and  original  activity  were  directed 
toward  the  acquiring  of  an  intellectual  equipment 
of  an  entirely  different  order  from  that  which  his 
great  rivals  in  Wall  street  boasted.  Nothing  is 
plainer  than  that  he  was  a  born  money-maker,  but  it 
is  easily  possible  that  if  early  success  in  this  direc- 
tion had  not  encouraged  him  to  bend  his  energies' 
solely  to  the  acquisition  of  wealth,  he  might  have 
devoted  himself  not  only  successfully,  but  much  to 
his  own  satisfaction,  to  higher  pursuits.  Though  he 
was  an  absolutely  tireless  worker  in  the  field  of 
money-getting,  one  can  scarcely  study  his  opera- 
tions, whether  as  a  mere  speculator  or  as  the  creator 


12 


JAY  GOULD  A  GREAT  MAN. 


and  developer  of  great  industrial  enterprises,  with- 
out becoming  convinced  that  the  incitement  to  many 
of  his  colossal  operations  was  quite  as  much  a  love 
for  intellectual  occupation  as  for  money.  Human 
nature  is  generally  set  down  as  a  universal  posses- 
sion, and  Mr.  Gould  was  yet  a  young  man  when  the 
scope  of  his  financial  operations  was  such  as  to  give 
clear  evidence  that  the  material  things  of  this  world 
were  abundantly  cared  for  in  his  possessions.  He 
had,  of  course,  the  instincts  of  a  born  speculator, 
yet  his  w^as  not  the  disposition  to  let  results  depend 
simply  on  the  accidental  fall  of  the  dice,  or  the  turn 
of  a  card.  He  loved  hazard,  but  he  loved  better  to 
compel  chance  to  enter  the  channels  he  had  dug  for 
it.  It  would  be  folly  to  deny  the  vast  value  of  his 
work  in  the  development  of  the  Western  and  South- 
western States,  but  perhaps  as  great  a  folly  to  attrib- 
ute a  philanthropic  or  patriotic  motive  to  it. 

In  a  history  of  the  life  of  such  a  man  as  Jay 
Gould,  it  is  well  that  certain  of  his  personal  charac- 
teristics and  certain  of  the  chief  events  of  his  career 
be  summarized  before  a  complete  study  of  his  biog- 
raphy and  character  is  made.  It  is  thus  possible  bet- 
ter to  understand  both  events  and  personal  qualities. 

The  education  which  Jay  Gould  acquired  through 
his  own  energies  as  a  youth,  found  its  best  applica- 
tion in  this  work  of  development.  In  his  purely 
speculative  adventures  he  was  aided  by  a  disposition 
whose  traits,  as  has  already  been  intimated,  were 
formed  in  his  youth  or  early  manhood.  It  is  impos- 
sible to  contemplate  without  astonishment  and  even 


jAY  GOULD  A  GREAT  MAN. 


13 


admiration,  the  spectacle  of  so  stable  a  character  as 
one  must  admit  Mr.Gould's  to  have  been,  fixed  in  boy- 
hood and  remaining  unchanged  all  through  a  career 
which  extended  from  a  condition  of  the  most  modest 
kind  (not  to  call  it  absolute  poverty)  to  a  position 
from  which  practically  he  ruled  the  financial  world 
of  this  continent  and  materially  affected  the  fort- 
unes of  the  other.  With  untold  wealth  at  his  com- 
mand, he  was  as  simple  in  tastes,  as  unaffected  in 
manner,  as  abstemious  in  habits,  as  industrious,  as 
self-dependent  and  self-reliant,  as  when  he  set  out  in 
boyhood  to  make  himself  a  rich  man.  Nor  did  any 
of  his  less  amiable  characteristics  undergo  a  less 
change.  In  some  of  his  first  business  ventures,  can 
be  read  the  same  disposition  for  silent  intrigue,  the 
same  secretiveness  touching  his  intentions,  the  same 
subtlety  and  elaborateness  of  plan,  and  the  same  in- 
difference to  the  feelings  or  comments  of  others,  as 
marked  the  tremendous  operations  which  are  the 
climaxes  of  his  purely  speculative  career — the  war 
over  Erie  and  the  gold  operations  which  culminated 
in  that  memorable  and  deplorable  day  which  is  writ- 
ten in  history  as  *'Black  Friday." 

There  was,  perhaps,  never  a  time  in  Jay  Gould's 
career  when  it  was  possible  to  estimate  his  wealth 
with  anything  approaching  correctness.  His  secre- 
tive disposition  stood  in  the  way  of  a  general  ac- 
quaintance with  the  outcome  of  his  many  ventures. 
Long  after  he  had  gained  control  of  the  Wabash 
system  of  Railways,  the  Manhattan  Elevated  and 
the  Western  Union  Telegraph  Company,  during  a 


14 


JAY  GOULD  A  GREAT  MAN. 


little  flurry  in  Wall  street,  in  which  everybody 
thought  the  finger  of  Jay  Gould  was  hidden,  but 
nobody  knew,  a  broker  sagely  observed,  "Mr.  Gould 
has  many  properties,  but  a  brass  band  is  not  one  of 
them."  He  never  went  forth  trumpeting  his  affairs. 
Moreover,  his  wealth  always  consisted  of  stocks  and 
bonds  which  were  subject  to  the  fluctuations  of  the 
market,  and  which  unquestionably  derived. a  consid- 
erable proportion  of  their  value  from  the  fact  that 
he  controlled  the  property  which  they  represented. 
Once,  however,  he  put  aside  his  natural  secrecy  and 
made  an  exhibition  of  his  wealth  in  order  to  quiet 
some  annoying  reports  that  were  current  touching 
his  financial  condition.  This  was  in  March,  1882, 
when  he  spread  the  contents  of  his  strong  box 
before  his  astonished  visitors. 

Mr.  Gould's  secretiveness  was  exhibited  quite  as 
strikingly  in  his  benefactions  as  his  speculations. 
He  never  achieved  a  reputation  as  one  in  the  habit 
of  doing  good  to  his  fellowmen,  and  yet  few  rich 
men  were  more  charitable  than  he.  Only  once  did 
he  forego  his  customary  reticence,  and  then  it  was 
in  a  time  of  great  public  calamity.  Yellow  fever 
was  raging  in  Memphis,  and  subscriptions  were 
being  raised  in  all  the  large  cities  of  the  country. 
Gould  did  not  wait,  but  telegraphed  to  the  authori- 
ties of  Memphis  to  draw  on  him  for  all  the  money 
they  needed.  As  a  rule,  like  William  H.  Vanderbilt, 
he  dispensed  his  benefactions  through  a  trustee. 
This,  during  the  last  few  years  of  his  own  life,  was 
Thurlow  Weed. 


JAY  GOULD  A  GREAT  MAN. 


15 


"I  am  Mr.  Gould's  philanthropical  adviser,"  said 
this  remarkable  man  on  one  occasion  in  1879; 
"whenever  a  really  deserving  charity  is  brought  to 
my  attention,  I  explain  it  to  Mr.  Gould.  He  always 
takes  my  word  as  to  when  and  how  much  to  con- 
tribute. I  have  never  known  him  to  disregard  my 
advice  in  such  matters.  His  only  condition  is  that 
there  shall  be  no  public  blazonry  of  his  benefactions. 
He  is  a  constant  and  liberal  giver,  but  doesn't  let 
his  right  hand  know  what  his  left  hand  is  doing. 
Oh,  there  will  be  a  full  page  to  his  credit  when  the 
record  is  opened  above." 

It  should  also  be  added  to  the  list  of  his  virtues, 
that  he  abstained  absolutely  from  spirituous  liquors, 
including  wine,  and  never  used  tobacco.  He  was, 
however,  fond  of  highly-spiced  food,  and  it  is  said 
that  indulgence  in  such  viands  caused  the  stomachic 
disarrangements  which  forced  him  to  devote  himself 
in  1888  to  the  pursuit  of  health.  He  loved  flowers 
exceedingly,  and  in  his  country  seat  at  Irvington- 
on-the-Hudson  built  up  one  of  the  finest  conserva- 
tories in  the  world. 

Jay  Gould's  career  was  not  a  colorless  one,  but 
was  full  of  episode  and  variety.  He  was  a  genuine 
American  in  that  he  had  engaged,  before  he  was 
out  of  his  teens,  in  some  dozen  pursuits,  which  num- 
ber he  doubled  in  the  next  few  years.  Milking 
twenty  cows  in  his  father's  dairy;  clerking  in  a 
country  store;  running  a  hardware  shop;  learning 
the  tinner's  trade;  working  in  a  country  newspaper 
office,  and  writing  a  history  of  Delaware  county, 


i6 


JAY  GOULD  A  GREAT  MAN. 


were  among  his  earlier  employments.  And  then 
came  his  enlistment  in  a  surveying  corps  and  his 
experience  in  map  drafting,  which  led  up  to  the 
leather  industry.  This  chapter  in  Mr.  Gould's 
career  is  a  sensational  one.  His  enlargement  of 
the  tannery  business  in  Pennsylvania,  his  establish- 
ment of  a  village  named  for  himself,  Gouldsborough, 
and  of  a  bank  of  which  he  was  director,  were  the 
business  portions  of  the  sensation.  The  suicide  of 
his  partner  and  the  war  for  possession  of  the  tan- 
nery, between  two  bands  of  roughs  fighting  one  for 
Gould  and  one  for  his  partner's  estate,  were  sensa- 
tions of  another  kind.  Next  Mr.  Gould  went  into 
the  railroad  business,  drifting  there  by  the  aid  of  his 
father-in-law,  who  wanted  to  make  the  best  of  a 
marriage  which  he  had  opposed.  From  that  time 
to  this,  Mr.  Gould  has  been  prominently  before  the 
public  in  financial  operations,  and  his  history  is  the 
history  of  Wall  street.  Opinions  of  Mr.  Gould 
have  been  just  as  varied  as  his  own  pursuits.  There 
are  those  who  laud  him  to  the  skies  for  the  success 
he  had  in  creating  his  enormous  fortune,  and  who 
think  him  the  sum  of  all  good  things.  There  are 
many  others  who  think  of  him  as  being  simply  a 
close-fisted,  unscrupulous,  selfish  business  man  of 
undoubted  ability,  but  with  no  thought  except  to 
add  to  his  wealth  by  whatever  means  might  be 
necessary  at  the  expense  of  others.  And  there  is 
another  large  class  of  those  who  consider  Mr.  Gould 
to  have  been  a  type  of  all  that  is  worst  in  Ameri- 
cans, a  man  who  wrecked  fortunes  and  honor  of 


JAY  GOULD  A  GREAT  MAN. 


others  to  add  to  his  own,  who  purchased  legislatures 
at  will  whenever  he  had  anything  to  desire  from 
them,  and  who  had  absolutely  no  redeeming  traits 
of  character.  It  will  be  our  effort  to  show  what 
justification  there  may  be  for  each  opinion.  What- 
ever other  merit  may  be  claimed  for  this  modest 
biography  of  a  rich  man,  it  is  certainly  to  be  con- 
sidered as  entirely  fair,  with  no  bias  for  or  against 
its  subject,  and  no  inclination  to  do  anything  but 
justice  to  his  memory.  No  effort  has  been  spared 
to  secure  reliable,  accurate  and  exhaustive  informa- 
tion on  the  history  and  personal  characteristics  of 
Jay  Gould.  Inasmuch  as  great  influence  is  exerted 
on  every  man's  life  by  those  business  associates 
most  closely  connected  with  him,  attention  has  been 
given  to  those  other  noted  financiers  whose  associa- 
tion with  the  "wizard"  have  been  the  nearest.  The 
ever-present  influence  of  ancestry  and  immediate 
family  make  that  subject  also  an  essential  one  to 
the  true  understanding  of  the  man.  The  history  of 
"Black  Friday"  and  its  disastrous  consequences  are 
treated  in  full,  also  the  investigation  of  the  Sena- 
torial Committee  and  Gould's  connection  with  Mis- 
souri Pacific  and  Western  Union.  His  domestic  life, 
his  yacht,  his  home  on  the  Hudson,  his  magnificent 
conservatory,  all  indications  of  the  spirit  and  tastes 
of  the  man,  are  also  given  careful  attention. 

The  early  life  of  such  a  man  must  perforce  af-  * 
ford  an  interesting  study,  and  no  apology  is  neces- 
sary for  a  pretty  full  account  of  Jay  Gould's  boy- 
hood, youth  and  early  manhood. 


CHAPTER  II. 


YOUTH  AND  ANCESTRY  OF  JAY  GOULD. 

MANY  who  knew  Mr.  Gould  intimately  are  in  the 
habit  of  asserting  that  his  origin  must  have  been 
Hebraic.  No  one  pretends  to  say  how  many  gener- 
ations back  the  Jewish  blood  was  in  the  family,  or 
that  Mr.  Gould  was  aware  of  its  existence  in  him. 
But  both  his  names,  Jason,  or  Jay,  and  Gould,  served 
to  strengthen  this  belief  in  those  who  held  it.  The 
twisted  form,  "Gould,''  was  suspected  of  being 
changed  from  "Gold,"  which  is  a  common  prefix  in 
the  names  of  inanimate  and  natural  objects  which 
certain  Jews  in  Europe  were  compelled  to  adopt  as 
surnames  in  one  period  of  their  history.  His  habits 
of  thought  and  his  extraordinary  intellect  were  both 
Jewish,  these  people  assert,  with  how  much  or  how 
little  basis  in  the  actual  fact  of  his  origin,  no  one 
can  ever  decide. 

Mr.  Gould  was  certainly  American  in  the  charac- 
ter and  extent  of  his  self-creation  and  success.  Born 
of  poor  parents,  on  a  poorer  farm,  he  began  to  make 
money  to  pay  his  way  through  school,  and  he  was  a 
partner  in  business  enterprises  while  yet  a  lad. 

But  so  far  as  Mr.  Gould  himself  has  been  able 
to  decide,  he  came  of  Puritan  stock  than  which  none 
is  more  diametrically  removed  from  the  Hebraic. 

18 


YOUNG  GOULD  IX  HIS  FA THKK's  DAIRY. 


YOUTH  AND  ANCESTRY  OF  JAY  GOULD.  IQ 


He  was  born  on  May  27,  1836,  in  the  little  post- 
village  of  Roxbury,  Delaware  county,  New  York 
state.  Nearly  half  a  century  before,  while  Dela- 
ware, Ulster  and  Otsego  counties  were  yet  one,  his 
grandfather  came  with  half  a  dozen  Puritan  families 
from  Fairfield  county,  Connecticut,  and  took  up 
land  near  the  land  which  became  Jay  Gould's  birth- 
place. This  grandfather  was  Captain  Abram  Gould. 
He  had  been  a  Revolutionary  soldier  and  was 
described  as  a  "grim,  earnest,  honest  man."  To  him 
was  born  in  1792,  a  son  who  was  named  John  B. 
Gould,  the  first  male  child  born  in  the  new  settle- 
ment. John  B.  grew  to  manhood,  was  three  times 
married,  and  Jay  was  his  son  by  his  first  wife.  The 
boy's  mother  was  a  pious  woman,  a  regular  attendant 
of  the  Methodist  services  held  in  the  "yaller  meetin' 
house,"  where  Jay  also  imbibed  such  religious  notions 
as  found  a  foothold  in  a  nature  not  much  given  to 
the  contemplation  of  spiritual  things.  The  father 
was  a  small  farmer  and  kept  a  dairy  of  twenty  cows. 

Until  he  was  fourteen  years  old  Jay  lived  on  the 
farm,  picking  up  such  a  meager  education  as  attend- 
ance from  four  to  five  years  at  a  district  school, 
which  was  closed  during  the  greater  part  of  the 
year,  afforded.  This  school  was  finally  closed  alto- 
gether by  the  breaking  out  of  the  "Anti-rent  War,"  as 
it  was  called,  an  uprising  of  the  farmers  against  the 
efforts  of  persons  who  claimed  to  have  bought  the 
land  from  the  Indians  to  collect  an  annual  rental. 
Jay  was  dissatisfied  with  farm  life,  which  indeed 
offered  nothing,  under  t^^e  circumstances,  to  satisfy 


20  YOUTH  AND  ANCESTRY  OF  JAY  GOULD. 

his  boyish  ambitions.  The  reasons  of  his  dissatis- 
faction he  once  set  forth  as  follows: 

"As  I  was  the  boy  of  the  family  I  generally 
brought  the  cows  in  the  morning  and  assisted  my 
sister  to  milk  them  and  drove  them  back,  and  went 
for  them  again  at  night.  I  went  barefooted  and  I 
used  to  get  thistles  in  my  feet,  and  I  did  not  like 
farming  in  that  way.  So  I  said  one  day  to  my 
father  that  I  would  like  to  go  to  a  select  school  that 
was  some  twelve  or  fifteen  miles  from  there.  He 
said  all  right,  but  that  I  was  too  young.  I  said  to 
him  that  if  he  would  give  me  my  time,  I  would  try 
my  fortune.  He  said  all  right,  that  I  was  not  worth 
much  at  home  and  I  might  go  ahead.  So  next  day 
I  started  off.  I  showed  myself  up  at  this  school, 
and  finally  I  found  a  blacksmith  who  consented  to 
board  me,  as  I  wrote  a  pretty  good  hand,  if  I  could 
write  up  his  books  at  night.  In  that  way  I  worked 
myself  through  this  school." 

During  these  years  of  the  embryo  financier,  he 
was  a  pale,  slender,  delicate  little  fellow,  studiously 
inclined  and  disliking  the  customary  sports  as  much 
as  the  toil  of  the  people  around  him.  It  is  remem- 
bered of  him  that  he  was  different  from  the  other 
boys  with  whom  he  associated  in  school.  He  was  not 
what  is  generally  termed  a  manly  boy.  He  kept  out 
of  the  rough  good-natured  games.  He  preferred  to 
remain  indoors,  and  at  noontime  cuddled  up  in 
some  remote  corner  of  the  school-house,  busy  about 
nobody  knew  what.  When  approached  by  the 
others  with  invitations  to  come  and  join  them,  he 


YOUTH  AND  ANCESTRY  OF  JAY  GOULD. 


21 


would  refuse.  If  in  banter  the  boys  attempted  to 
force  him  to  join  them,  he  would  make  a  great  out- 
cry, and  breaking  away  from  them,  would  sit  and 
mope  until  the  school  was  called  to  order.  Then  he 
would  go  to  the  master's  chair  and  enter  a  tearful 
complaint  against  his  enemies.  The  master  would 
thrash  the  other  fellows,  and  little  Gould  would  be 
tickled.  . 

It  was  because  his  father  became  unpopular  in 
the  village  by  opposing  the  anti-rent  movement  at 
that  time,  that  young  Gould  was  obliged  to  leave 
the  school  nearest  his  home.  He  waited  until  he  was 
fourteen  years  old.  Then,  after  pondering  over  his 
prospects,  he  formed  a  resolution,  and  at  once  put 
it  into  practice  by  asking  his  father's  permission  to 
leave  home,  saying  that  he  was  confident  in  his 
ability  to  take  care  of  himself.  His  father  was  in- 
clined to  be  amused  at  the  boy's  request,  which  was 
made  with  much  earnestness,  and  thinking  that  it 
was  a  mere  passing  whim,  returned  a  careless 
affirmative.  The  family  were  astounded,  however, 
the  next  morning,  when  little  Jay  entered  the  break- 
fast room  equipped  for  his  journey  out  into  the 
world.  He  ate  his  breakfast  quietly  and,  arising 
from  the  table,  held  out  his  hand  to  his  father  with 
a  hearty  "good-bye,  father."  His  father  was  amazed 
at  his  determination,  and  his  stepmother  and  sisters 
entreated  him  tearfully  to  remain  at  home.  Un- 
shaken in  purpose,  however,  the  future  "Wizard  of 
Wall  Street"  hastily  caught  up  his  little  bundle  and 
left  his  parent's  house.    His  bundle  contained  a 


22  YOUTH  AND  ANCESTRY  OF  JAY  GOULD. 


spare  suit  of  clothes,  and  he  had  fifty  cents  in  his 
pocket. 

Young  Jay  trudged  hopefully  through  the 
mountainous  road  between  Roxbury  and  Hobart, 
where  there  was  an  academy  that  he  iiad  long  de- 
sired to  enter.  He  went  directly  to  the  principal  of 
the  academy  and  told  him  of  his  anxiety  to  obtain 
an  education  and  his  desire  to  get  employment  that 
he  might  earn  money  to  pay  the  tuition  fees.  The 
principal  became  interested  in  the  boy  and  secured 
for  him  the  position  of  bookkeeper  in  a  store  kept 
by  the  village  blacksmith.  This  school  was  kept  by 
Mr.  Oliver,  and  Jay's  course  there  was  completed  in 
185 1.  During  this  year,  however,  he  must  have 
made  considerable  progress  in  mathematics,  in  spite 
of  the  fact  that  it  used  to  be  related  of  him  in  the 
neighborhood  that  he  grew  tired  once  of  going  to 
school,  and  was  locked  up  one  morning  in  the  cellar 
by  his  father  as  a  measure  of  correction,  and  for- 
gotten until  his  non-return  in  the  evening  caused 
comment.  The  taste  for  mathematics  it  was  that 
opened  up  to  him  the  first  steadily  lucrative  em- 
ployment in  which  he  became  engaged,  and  also  led 
him,  by  easy  steps,  into  the  career  which  destiny 
seemed  to  have  marked  out  for  him. 

On  leaving  school  he  got  a  place  as  a  clerk  in  a 
tin  shop  in  Hobart,  and  at  fifteen  years  of  age  was  a 
partner  in  and  manager  of  the  business.  Not  only 
that,  but  this  amazing  boy  was  up  at  daybreak  every 
day  to  pursue  the  study  of  surveying  and  such  engi- 
neering as  he  found  books  and  instruments  to  help 


YOUTH  AND  ANCESTRY  OF  JAY  GOULD. 


23 


him  to.  Moreover,  when  the  elder  Gould  sold  his 
farm,  young  Jay  took  him  into  the  tin  shop  on  a 
salary. 

Innumerable  anecdotes  are  related  of  Jay's  early 
life.  All  the  world  has  heard  the  mouse-trap  story. 
It  was  in  1853,  when  the  World's  Exhibition  was 
held  in  New  York,  that  young  Gould,  then  about 
seventeen  years  of  age,  is  said  to  have  made  his 
first  visit  to  the  metropolis  in  which  he  was  to  be- 
come such  a  power.  He  carried  with  him  a  showy 
mahogany  case,  containing  an  invention  which  the 
boy  hoped  would  bring  him  fame  and  fortune.  The 
invention  was  a  mouse-trap.  He  entered  a  horse- 
car  and,  leaving  his  valuable  model  on  the  seat, 
stepped  outside  and  stood  on  the  platform,  where 
he  could  view  the  glories  of  the  great  city.  The  box 
was  picked  up  by  a  thief,  but  not  without  the  obser- 
vation of  young  Gould,  who  pursued  the  rascal  and 
captured  him.  This  exploit  was  related  next  day 
in  the  Herald,  this  being  the  first  newspaper  refer- 
ence to  Gould,  whose  renown  has  since  filled  columns 
of  the  daily  press  for  years.  The  mouse-trap  was  a 
success,  but  its  inventor  has  been  far  more  success- 
ful with  his  future  traps,  which  he  laid  for  speculative 
mice,  and  with  which  he  caught  them  all  his  life. 

That  Gould's  great  fortune  was  not  the  result  of 
a  streak  of  luck,  but  of  strict  attention  to  business 
and  hard  work,  is  clearly  proved  in  all  the  events 
of  his  life.  His  plans  were  the  result  of  careful 
thought  and  they  were  carried  out  by  hard  work. 
The  man  in  whose  family  young  Gould  worked  for 


24 


YOUTH  AND  ANCESTRY  OF  JAY  GOULD. 


his  board  when  going  to  school  thus  speaks  of  his 
conduct  at  that  early  date: 

"He  was  an  excellent  boy.  His  habits  were 
good  and  he  devoted  most  of  his  evenings  to  study. 
He  was  always  the  first  one  up  in  the  morning,  and 
he  had  the  fire  burning  and  the  tea-kettle  boiling 
by  the  time  my  wife  was  ready  to  prepare  break- 
fast." 

It  was  while  working  in  the  tin  store,  shortly  after 
this,  that  Gould  took  part  in  a  transaction  in  which  one 
cannot  fail  to  recognize  one  of  the  distinctive  traits 
of  his  future  business  career.  If  the  king  of  Wall 
street  never  went  hunting  for  snipes  with  a  brass 
band,  neither  did  the  country  lad.  The  merchant 
for  whom  he  was  working  also  did  a  real-estate  busi- 
ness. His  employer  was  negotiating  for  the  pur- 
chase of  some  property  belonging  to  an  estate  in 
chancery,  and  Jay  carried  on  the  correspondence  for 
him.  By  virtue  of  his  position  he  thus  learned  the 
particulars  of  a  bargain  which  his  employer  desired 
to  make  on  the  piece  of  land.  The  executor  de- 
manded twenty-five  hundred  dollars,  but  the  would-be 
purchaser  offered  only  two  thousand  dollars.  Jay 
undertook  a  little  investigation  on  private  account, 
and  became  convinced  that  the  property  was  bound 
to  appreciate  in  value.  While  the  negotiations  were 
in  progress,  Jay  borrowed  twenty-five  hundred 
dollars  of  his  father,  and  outbidding  his  employer, 
quietly  scooped  in  the  property.  He  had  the  deed 
made  out  in  his  father's  name,  and  within  two  weeks 
sold  out  for  four  thousand  dollars.    It  is  said  that 


YOUTH  AND  ANCESTRY  OF  JAY  GOULD.  2^ 

his  employer  looked  at  the  transaction  in  the  light 
of  a  breach  of  confidence.  The  result  was  that  it 
caused  a  separation  between  the  merchant  and  his 
clerk,  and  broke  up  a  little  romance  which  is  said  to 
have  existed  between  the  young  speculator  and  a 
young  female  member  of  his  employer's  family. 

This  was  practically  the  end  of  his  life  and  asso- 
ciations with  the  little  villages,  Roxbury  and  Ho- 
bart,  though  his  map  work  and  surveying,  in  the 
following  years,  were  largely  done  in  the  surround- 
ing counties.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  he  had  exhausted 
the  possibilities  for  him  in  those  country  villages. 
He  had  squeezed  what  knowledge  and  profits  were 
to  be  obtained  there,  and  was  ready  to  seek  new 
worlds  to  conquer.  While  the  little  towns  furnished 
him  no  inducements  for  permanent  residence,  and 
but  little  of  the  start  toward  his  colossal  fortune, 
nevertheless,  the  influences  that  the  towns  and  their 
people  exerted  on  his  early  life  must  be  credited 
with  much  of  the  better  business  qualities,  of  perse- 
verance and  method  that  gave  much  of  his  success 
in  later  years. 

Gould's  mother  died  in  1841,  when  he  was  but 
five  years  old.  His  father  died  in  1866,  and  some 
years  ago  their  distinguished  son  erected  over  their 
graves  a  handsome  monument  in  the  village  ceme- 
tery. The  elder  Gould  had  a  farm  of  about  one 
hundred  and  fifty  acres,  and  was  esteemed  by  his 
neighbors  as  a  worthy  citizen.  The  house  in  which 
Jay  was  born  and  spent  his  boyhood  is  described  as 
a  "two-story,  box-like  frame  building  covered  with  a 


26  YOUTH  AND  ANCESTRY  OF  JAY  GOULD. 


coating  of  white  paint."  In  July,  1880,  Jay  Gould 
visited  his  birth-place  and  also  Hobart,  where  he  went 
to  school.  He  used  to  walk  the  entire  distance  to 
school  every  Monday  morning,  returning  Saturdays. 
He  was  enthusiastically  received  by  the  inhabitants 
at  the  time  of  hi5  visit,  as  the  most  noted  man  ever 
born  in  that  region.  When  he  visited  the  old  house, 
it  is  to  be  wondered  if  he  recalled  the  first  instance 
in  which  he  ever  showed  a  combative  spirit  of  brav- 
ery. It  was  during  the  Anti-rent  War,  when  a  party 
of  anti-renters  visited  his  father's  house  to  compel 
him  to  cease  paying  rent,  John  B.  Gould  and  a 
neighbor,  Hiram  Moore,  belonging  to  the  conserva- 
tive farmers,  known  as  "high-renters."  The  "rebels" 
were  masked  and  in  bad  temper,  but  John  B.  Gould 
stood  out  stoutly  for  his  rights,  while  ten-year-old 
Jay,  who  stood  in  the  doorway  at  his  side,  urged  his 
father  to  shoot  his  assailants  down.  John  B.,  like 
the  son  in  manhood,  was  small  of  stature,  and  had 
the  additional  misfortune  of  having  one  leg  shorter 
than  the  other,  but  he  probably  inherited  some  of 
the  rugged  qualities  of  grim  Captain  Abram,  and 
these  were  likely  to  be  accentuated  by  the  struggle 
for  existence  in  the  rough  sterile  country  of  their 
habitation.  The  vigilance  committee,  at  any  rate,  left 
the  little  man  unharmed,  though  they  promptly  pro- 
ceeded to  tar  and  feather  his  neighbor,  Hiram  Moore. 

These  anti-rent  troubles  were  caused  by  the  refus- 
al of  the  occupants  of  certain  large  tracts  of  land 
in  Delaware  and  adjacent  counties,  to  pay  an  annual 
rental  to  persons  who  claimed  to  have  purchased 


YOUTH  AND  ANCESTRY  OF  JAY  GOULD.  2/ 


the  land  from  the  Indians.  Such  rentals  had  been 
paid  with  a  fair  degree  of  regularity  up  to  1844, 
when  the  farmers  rebelled,  declaring  that  the  exac- 
tions were  oppressive  and  unlawful.  In  some  cases 
the  rent  exacted  had  consisted  of  so  many  bushels  of 
wheat,  a  certain  number  of  fowls  or  a  few  days'  labor 
per  year.  In  other  cases  cash  payments  were  de- 
manded. 

Secret  organizations  were  formed  in  Delaware 
county,  and  some  of  the  aggressive  movements  were 
particularly  directed  toward  John  B.  Gould,  who  de- 
clined to  join  the  anti-rent  party.  The  officers  of  the 
law  were  resisted  in  their  attempts  to  levy  on  or  sell 
property  for  non-payment  of  rent.  The  anti-rent 
men  claimed  that  the  land  really  belonged  to  the 
Indians,  and  they  armed  themselves  and  went  about 
the  country  disguised  as  Indians.  They  carried 
tomahawks  and  applied  tar  and  feathers  to  several 
men  whom  they  accused  of  persecuting  them.  Mr. 
Gould  had  in  his  possession  for  many  years  one  of 
the  tomahawks  that  was  brandished  by  the  Rox- 
bury  "Indians,"  and  he  could  readily  recall  the 
events  that  preceded  and  followed  the  battle  of 
Shacksville,  in  which  a  body  of  armed  anti-renters,  in 
resisting  a  sheriff's  posse,  killed  several  men.  Gov. 
Silas  Wright  was  then  obliged  to  declare  several 
counties  in  a  state  of  insurrection  and  many  arrests 
were  made.  The  state  authorities  overcame  armed 
resistance,  but  the  anti-rent  men  carried  their  griev- 
ance into  politics  and  succeeded  in  electing  John 
Young  for  Governor  over  Silas  Wright. 


28  YOUTH  AND  ANCESTRY  OF  JAY  GOULD. 


Mr.  Gould  used  to  tell  his  intimate  friends  that 
whatever  nerve  he  possessed  he  inherited  from  his 
father. 

While  working  at  the  tin  shop,  young  Gould 
retained  all  his  fondness  for  mathematics,  and 
mastered  several  of  the  best  authorities  on  survey- 
ing, trigonometry  and  engineering,  besides  reading 
a  course  of  history.  He  rose  at  four  in  the  morning, 
and  devoted  the  time  he  could  call  his  own  to  read- 
ing and  study.  Having  made  a  particularly  nice  tin 
whistle,  he  invited  the  boys  of  the  town  to  join  him 
in  amateur  surveying  expeditions,  and  with  a  bor- 
rowed compass  and  other  necessary  instruments,  the 
boys  acting  as  flagmen  and  chain-bearers,  he  soon 
became  an  expert  surveyor.  In  the  tin  business  he 
made  himself  so  useful  that  at  the  age  of  fifteen  he 
was  a  full  partner  in  the  concern,  and  when  he 
visited  Albany  and  New  York  to  purchase  material, 
he  succeeded  in  opening  accounts  with  Phelps, 
Dodge  &  Co.  and  other  firms  well-known  to  the 
public. 

It  was  at  this  point  in  young  Gould's  career  that 
the  unvarying  routine  of  life  in  a  tin  shop  became  too 
monotonous,  and  he  abandoned  it  for  a  pursuit  that 
would  at  least  enable  him  to  see  something  of  the 
surrounding  country,  and  possibly  be  more  profitable. 
He  decided  to  make  use  of  the  knowledge  that  he 
had  gained  and  become  a  surveyor. 


CHAPTER  III. 


GOULD  AS  SURVEYOR  AND  HISTORIAN. 

THE  tin  shop  was  profitable  but  slow,  and  with  an 
outcropping  of  the  avidity  which  he  afterward 
showed,  he  sought  for  something  more  lucrative.  In 
1852  he  transferred  his  interest  to  his  father  and 
arranged  to  take  charge  of  a  surveying  party  at 
twenty  dollars  a  month.  Gould  had  heard  of  a  man 
in  Ulster  county  who  was  looking  for  an  assistant. 
He  was  making  a  map  of  that  county  and  Gould 
wrote  to  him.  When  he  left  home  to  take  the 
position,  his  father  offered  him  money,  but  he  left 
all  his  capital  in  the  store,  burned  his  ships  behind 
him,  and  took  only  money  enough  to  pay  his  fare 
to  the  place  where  the  new  position  was  to  begin. 
His  new  employer  started  him  out  to  make  the 
surveys,  to  see  where  the  roads  were  and  to  locate 
the  residences.  He  also  instructed  young  Gould  to 
get  trusted  for  his  living  expenses  along  the  way, 
and  that  he  w^ould  pay  them  following  after  him. 
Two  or  three  days  later,  Gould  ran  against  the  first 
objection  to  this  arrangement  from  one  of  his  enter- 
tainers, who  knew  that  the  employer  had  already 
failed  three  times.  He  agreed  to  trust  young  Gould 
but  would  not  trust  the  employer.  The  boy 
wandered  on  after  this  rebuff  until  three  o'clock, 

29 


30 


GOULD  AS  SURVEYOR  AND  HISTORIAN. 


before  making  an  effort  to  get  his  dinner.  His 
wretchedness  and  its  relief  are  interestingly  told  in 
a  letter  that  Mr.  Gould  wrote  to  a  friend  some  years 
later. 

"I  was  out  of  money — that  is  to  say,  every  cent  I 
had  at  my  command  was  a  ten-cent  piece,  with 
which  I  had  determined  not  to  part.  Fall  was  ap- 
proaching, and,  unless  our  surveys  were  completed 
before  winter  set  in,  the  final  completion  of  our 
enterprise  would  be  necessarily  delayed  until 
another  season,  subjecting  us  to  additional  expense, 
which  I  feared  would  prove  hazardous  to  the  enter- 
prise. I  was  among  entire  strangers  and  conse- 
quently without  credit.  I  could  not  spare  time  to 
go  to  Delaware  county  after  funds,  and  I  had  not 
money  to  reach  there.  If  tears  had  been  coin  my 
empty  coffers  would  soon  have  been  amply  re- 
plenished. In  this  emergency  a  w^elcome  expedient 
accidentally  presented  itself.  I  was  prosecuting  my 
surveys  at  this  time  in  the  town  of  Shawangunk, 
and,  while  the  tears  were  even  trickling  down  my 
cheek,  a  farmer  came  running  after  me  and  asked 
me  if  I  would  not  return  with  him  to  dinner  and 
make  a  'noon  mark,'  which  is  a  north  and  south 
line,  to  indicate,  by  the  shadow  caused  by  the  rays 
falling  against  an  upright  object  and  striking  the 
line,  the  hour  of  midday.  I  accepted  the  invitation 
with  pleasure,  as  a  couple  of  crackers  was  all  I 
had  eaten  since  the  preceding  night,  and  I  had 
been  working  since  daylight  and  was  consequently 
hungry  and  faint.    After  dinner  I  made  the  noon 


GOULD  AS  SURVEYOR  AND  HISTORIAN.  3 1 


mark,  and,  turning  to  leave,  the  farmer  asked  me 
my  bill.  I  replied  that  he  'was  welcome.'  He 
insisted,  however,  on  paying  me  a  half  dollar,  which 
he  assured  me  a  neighbor  had  paid  for  one,  which  1 
accepted,  and  started  on  my  way,  and  had  I  that 
moment  discovered  a  continent  it  would  have 
afforded  me  less  joy.  I  saw  that  I  could  turn  this 
discovery  to  practical  account,  and  I  felt  already 
half  rich,  and  I  prosecuted  my  labors  with  a  lighter 
step  than  for  many  a  day.  The  fame  of  my  noon 
marks  preceded  me,  and  the  applications  from  the 
farmers  were  numerous.  By  this  means  I  paid  all 
the  expenses  of  the  surveys  and  came  out  at  the 
completion  with  six  dollars  in  my  pocket." 

In  the  early  part  of  this  embarrassment  he  had 
no  overcoat  and  sometimes  traveled  forty  miles  a 
day  on  foot.  His  employer  failed  completely  and 
Gould  continued  the  business  for  himself.  Jay  pro- 
posed to  the  two  other  young  surveyors,  who  had 
also  been  engaged  on  the  work,  to  complete  it  on 
their  own  account.  The  other  two  young  fellows 
had  money,  and  when  the  map  was  ready  for  the 
engraver.  Jay,  finding  his  colleagues  anxious  to  put 
their  names  on  it,  sold  his  interest  to  them  for  ;S500. 
With  that  capital  he  undertook  similar  surveys  of 
Albany  and  Delaware  counties,  and  was  successful 
in  turning  out  satisfactory  maps  of  those  regions. 
He  sold  enough  maps  to  bring  his  capital  up  to 
;^5,000.  The  accuracy  of  his  survey  of  Ulster  county 
in  the  meantime,  had  attracted  the  attention  of  John 
Delafield,  in  Albany,  who  applied  to  the  Legislature 


32 


GOULD  AS  SURVEYOR  AND  HISTORIAN. 


for  aid  in  the  completion  of  a  topographical  survey 
of  the  entire  state  by  Mr.  Gould.  Mr.  Delafield 
died  before  any  material  progress  was  made  in  this 
work.  His  application  to  the  Legislature  was  not 
successful.  Some  particulars  of  interest  in  regard  to 
the  map-making  business  are  related  by  Oliver  J. 
Tillson,  one  of  his  partners  in  the  map-making  en- 
terprise, after  the  failure  of  the  man  who  had  first 
employed  him  in  the  business.  Mr.  Tillson  confirms 
Mr.  Gould's  account  and  tells  of  the  bargain  in 
which  the  latter  sold  out  to  his  partners.  Here  is  a 
copy  of  a  receipt  given  by  Gould  on  that  occasion: 

December  27, 1852. 
Received  of  Oliver  J.  Tillson  and  Peter  H.  Brink  ninety 
dollars  and  wheel  in  full  of  all  debts  and  demands  and  dues 
against  them  and  the  Ulster  county  map. 

Jason  Gould, 
for  John  B.  Gould. 

It  will  be  observed  that  he  signed  his  name 
"Jason,"  not  Jay.  He  was  christened  "Jason,"  but 
about  this  time  began  to  change  it  to  Jay,  by  which 
he  was  ever  after  known.  "There  wasn't  any  foolish- 
ness in  Jason's  books,"  says  Mr.  Tillson,  referring  to 
the  books  in  which  Gould  had  made  his  notes  of  the 
surveys.  "He  was  all  business  in  those  days,  as  he 
is  now.  Why,  even  at  meal  times  he  was  always 
talking  map.  He  was  a  worker,  and  my^ather  used 
to  say:    'Look  at  Gould;  isn't  he  a  driver?'  " 

This,  in  fact,  is  the  testimony  of  all  his  contem- 
poraries. From  his  earlier  years  he  was  absorbed  in 
schemes  for  making  money,  and  his  whole  aim  in 


CANVASSING  FOR  HIS  BOOK  "HISTORY  OF  DELAWARE  COUNTY." 


GOULD  AS  SURVEYOR  AND  HISTORIAN.  33 


life  was  to  "get  on."  With  every  passing  year  his 
ambition  broadened,  until  it  enveloped  a  continent. 

It  is  a  striking  coincidence  that  young  Gould 
and  his  two  partners  in  the  map  business  were  sued 
by  the  man  who  first  employed  the  former  in  the 
project,  and  they  placed  their  case  in  the  hands  of 
Lawyer  T.  R.  Westbrook,  who  succeeded  in  having 
the  suit  dismissed.  Westbrook  afterward  became 
(and  this  is  the  coincidence)  the  supreme  court  judge, 
who  years  after  scandalized  the  legal  profession  by 
holding  court  in  Jay  Gould's  private  office  and  issu- 
ing an  order  in  one  of  the  Manhattan  railway  litiga- 
tions. 

He  and  his  cousin,  with  whom  he  entered  into 
partnership  at  Albany,  increased  the  map  business 
to  the  extent  of  sending  surveyors  into  various  por- 
tions of  Ohio,  Pennsylvania  and  Michigan,  but  after- 
ward the  contracts  were  transferred  to  a  surveyor  in 
Philadelphia. 

From  this  time  he  was  continuously  employed 
as  a  surveyor,  until  a  severe  attack  of  typhoid 
fever  compelled  him  to  give  up  outdoor  exposure. 
He  had  determined  to  make  a  complete  survey  of 
the  entire  state  of  New  York,  and  he  did  complete 
maps  of  Albany  county,  the  village  of  Cohoes,  the 
Albany  and  Niscayuna  Plank  road  and  Delaware 
county.  He  also  surveyed  Lake  and  Geauga  coun- 
ties in  Ohio,  Oakland  county  in  Michigan,  and  a  pro- 
posed railroad  from  Newburg  to  Syracuse,  Ihen 
he  was  seriously  ill  for  several  months,  but  his 
money  was  not  used  up,  and  he  wrote  with  some 


34  GOULD  AS  SURVEYOR  AND  HISTORIAN. 


degree  of  interest  and  also  profit  a  history  of  Dela- 
ware county  and  partial  histories  of  Greene,  Ulster 
and  Sullivan  counties. 

Gould  had  gathered  his  ideas  of  casual  writing 
from  a  brief  experience  in  a  country  newspaper 
office,  where  he  had  worked  gratuitously.  The 
history  of  Delaware  county  was  four  hundred  pages 
long,  and  is  said  to  have  been  an  exceedingly  cred- 
itable performance,  both  as  an  example  of  diligence 
and  care  in  the  collection  of  facts  and  skill  and  taste 
in  the  literary  presentation  of  them.  It  never  came 
into  general  circulation,  however,  probably  because 
the  printer,  who  lived  in  Philadelphia,  insisted,  in 
spite  of  *'copy"  and  proof  corrections,  in  spelling 
the  name  of  the  author  "Gold."  When  the  books 
arrived  in  Roxbury  and  the  young  historian  discov- 
ered the  blunder  he  shipped  them  all  back  to  the 
manufacturer  and  would  have  nothing  more  to  do 
with  them. 

Gould's  taste  of  money  and  profits  had  acted 
upon  him  almost  as  does  the  taste  of  blood  to  a 
lion.  By  this  time  he  was  making  enough  money 
to  furnish  himself  a  realization  of  what  money  could 
do  and  to  make  him  want  it  with  an  insatiable 
desire.  His  child  life  had  been  a  short  one,  and  he 
was  a  man  in  business  and  responsibility  at  an  age 
when  most  persons  of  no  greater  age  are  considered 
to  be  but  the  merest  children.  And  what  there  was 
of  his  child  life  had  been  cold,  and  not  of  a  charac- 
ter to  teach  him,  what  few  yet  know,  that  money  is 
the  least  important  thing  in  the  world.   All  his  life. 


GOULD  AS  SURVEYOR  AND  HISTORIAN.  35 


he  had  felt  the  lack  of  it.  He  had  been  needy. 
He  had  been  compelled  to  struggle  to  supply  his 
physical  necessities,  and  then  at  times  they  were 
but  scantily  supplied.  One  favorite  sister,  his  elder 
one,  who  was  his  first  teacher  of  mathematics,  was 
almost  the  only  person  whose  recollection  at  home 
was  any  delight  to  the  boy  and  young  man.  So, 
now  that  his  well-applied  and  earnest  labors  have 
brought  fruit  to  the  extent  of  several  thousand 
dollars  of  cash  capital  available  to  him,  it  is  not 
strange  that  he  sought  for  some  enterprise  in  which 
the  profits  would  be  certain  and  large.  This  oppor- 
tunity opened  before  him  and  he  grasped  it. 

It  is  very  doubtful  if,  at  that  period  in  his  career, 
young  Gould  had  ever  read  the  works  of  Shake- 
speare, but  be  that  as  it  may,  he  followed  that  great 
bard  in  the  opportunity  which  was  now  his.  Shake- 
speare says: 

"There  is  a  tide  in  the  affairs  of  man 

"Which,  taken  at  the  flood  leads  on  to  fortune. 

"Omitted,  all  the  voyage  of  our  life 

"Is  bound  in  shallows  and  in  miseries. 

"On  such  a  full  sea  are  we  now  afloat, 

"And  we  must  take  the  current  when  it  serves, 

"Or  lose  our  ventures." 

Gould's  tide  was  in;  it  was  turning,  and  the  cnance 

of  his  life  was  waiting  to  be  taken.     It  was  this 

same  faculty  of  being  able  to  recognize  what  was 

the  right  thing  to  do,  that  all  his  life  stood  him  in 

good  play.    He  recognized  it  now,  and  changed  the 

whole  current  of  his  life. 
3 


36  GOULD  AS  SURVEYOR  AND  HISTORIAN. 


The  lessons  to  be  learned  from  this  early  period 
of  the  life  of  the  one  who  was  in  future  time  to  be 
the  "Wizard  of  Wall  Street,"  are  not  in  anything 
obscure.  Unceasing  vigilance  and  unflagging  energy 
were  the  qualities  that  were  most  prominently  de- 
veloped in  him  from  his  very  youth.  These  quali- 
ties properly  directed  and  controlled,  are  in  this  age 
bound  to  win  success  for  any  young  man.  Gould 
never  lost  an  opportunity  to  make  more  money  by 
increased  efforts.  He  was  not  afraid  to  assume  any 
amount  of  extra  work  if  he  saw  in  it  a  just  amount 
of  remuneration.  From  the  time  when  he  left  his 
father's  house  and  started  out  into  the  world  to  take 
care  of  himself  and  make  his  own  living,  there  was 
never  a  man  with  whom  he  came  in  contact  who  did 
not  consider  the  young  fellow  a  valuable  person  to 
have  attached  to  his  business.  Gould  always  made 
it  a  point  to  prove  himself  valuable.  He  made  his 
employer's  interests  his  own,  and  was  always  ready 
for  whatever  appeared  necessary  to  be  done.  In  all 
of  this,  his  example  is  most  worthy  of  emulation. 
And  while  it  is  not  to  be  expected  that  the  same 
efforts  will  bring  to  every  one  equal  results,  one 
may  rest  assured  that  they  will  amply  repay  for  their 
adoption. 


l  lll-  TANNKRV  WAR  IN  PENNSYLVANIA. 


•CHAPTER  IV. 


GOULD  AND  THE  TANNERY  WAR. 

ROM  the  mildly  humdrum  life  of  school  boy, 


1  tinker,  surveyor  and  bookseller,  Gould's  career 
now  changes  to  an  intensely  dramatic  period.  While 
pursuing  his  avocation  as  a  surveyor,  he  made  the 
acquaintance  of  Zadock- Pratt,  a  local  celebrity  who 
lived  at  Prattsville  not  far  from  Roxbury,  for  whom 
he  had  done  some  surveying.  Pratt  is  described  as 
an  ignorant  man  who  had  amassed  what  at  that 
time  and  in  that  section  was  considered  an  immense 
fortune.  He  was  worth  a  hundred  thousand  dollars, 
and  had  the  largest  tannery  in  the  country.  He  had 
also  been  to  Congress,  and,  as  is  usual  with  such 
district,  nabobs,  he  was  a  very  vain  man.  How  he 
happened  to  become  attached  to  Jay  Gould  does 
not  appear.  Mr.  Gould  himself  once  said:  "While 
I  was  carrying  on  these  surveys,  I  met  a  gentleman 
who  seemed  to  take  a  fancy  to  me."  Zadock  Pratt 
was  a  famous  man  in  his  days.  He  was  not  only 
the  biggest  tanner  in  the  country,  but  he  was  also  a 
power  in  the  politics  in  the  state.  During  his  ten 
years'  service  in  Congress,  at  least  one  of  his 
speeches  attracted  widespread  attention.  He  was 
one  of  the  earliest  advocates  of  cheap  postage,  and 
he  moved  the  establishment  of  the  Bureau  of  Sta- 


37 


38 


GOULD  AND  THE  TANNERY  WAR. 


tistics,  which  has  since  developed  into  the  Depart- 
ment of  the  Interior.  He  also  moved  the  first  sur- 
vey of  the  Pacific  railroad  line.  When  he  ceased 
his  Prattsville  tannery  in  1845  he  estimated  that  in 
twenty  years  he  had  used  one  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  cords  of  bark  and  wood,  had  employed 
thirty  thousand  men,  had  cleared  twelve  thousand 
acres  of  land  and  tanned  over  one  million  sides  of 
sole  leather.  He  was,  however,  nearly  seventy  years 
old  when  he  interested  himself  in  Gould.  The  latter 
was  fortunate  in  obtaining  the  confidence  of  this 
man.  The  history  of  his  association  with  Pratt,  and 
later  with  Leupp,  is  not  contained  in  legislative  and 
law  reports,  as  are  other  portions  of  Gould's  career, 
but  there  are  several  very  circumstantial  accounts 
extant  based  on  the  testimony  of  eye-witnesses, 
some  of  whom  may  still  be  living. 

One  story  has  it  that  the  young  historian  had 
artfully  flattered  Pratt  in  his  "History  of  Delaware 
County,"  and  so  won  his  good  opinion.  However 
this  may  be,  certain  it  is  that  Pratt  asked  the  young 
man  who  had  surveyed  his  place  in  Prattsville  to 
embark  with  him  in  the  business  of  tanning  leather. 
Gould  agreed  and  immediately  demonstrated  his 
capacity  for  managing  the  new  venture  by  going 
over  the  Delaware  and  Lackawanna  railway,  then 
recently  completed,  into  Pennsylvania,  on  a  search 
for  a  site  of  the  proposed  new  tannery.  He  found 
a  large  tract  of  land  growing  hemlock  in  Lacka- 
wanna county  and  reported  the  fact  to  Mr.  Pratt. 
Soon  after  he  started  for  the  hemlock  woods  again, 


GOULD  AND  THE  TANNERY  WAR. 


39 


and  this  time  he  made  contracts  of  purchase  with 
their  owners.  In  his  next  expedition  into  Pennsyl- 
vania he  took  fifty  or  sixty  men  with  him  to  build 
the  tannery.  The  site  chosen  was  in  the  midst  of 
the  forest,  fifteen  miles  away  from  the  nearest  vil- 
lage. The  men  took  with  them  a  portable  sawmill. 
Gould  went  in  and  chopped  down  the  first  tree 
which  was  sawed  up,  and  transferred  it  into  a  black- 
smith shop,  under  the  roof  of  which  Jay  Gould 
passed  the  first  night,  sleeping  on  a  bed  of  hemlock 
boughs.  Thus  the  tannery,  "a  very  large  one,  the 
largest  in  the  country  at  that  time,"  to  use  Mr. 
Gould's  own  words,  was  built.  Near  it  there  soon 
sprung  up  a  village  which  was  called  Gouldsboro, 
and  in  this  village  Gould  established  a  bank  of 
which  he  elected  himself  director  by  means  of 
proxies  obtained  from  relations  whom  he  had  per- 
suaded to  take  stock. 

Pratt  was  taken  with  young  Gould's  snap  and 
energy  and  considered  him  just  the  kind  of  material 
to  use  in  pushing  a  new  enterprise.  Pratt  furnished 
all  the  capital  and  Gould  conducted  the  active  oper- 
ation. The  capital  of  the  firm  was  $120,000,  and 
the  tannery  at  Gouldsboro,  Pennsylvania,  became 
the  biggest  concern  of  its  kind  in  the  country. 
Gould  threw  the  whole  energy  of  his  being  into  the 
enterprise.  Pratt  made  occasional  visits  to  Goulds- 
boro, but  the  business  was  left  practically  in  Gould's 
hands  and  it  grew  rapidly.  After  a  while  Mr.  Pratt 
became  dissatisfied  with  the  condition  of  affairs. 
Apparently  a  rushing  business  was  being  done  from 


40 


GOULD  AND  THE  TANNERY  WAR. 


which  there  was  no  adequate  return.  After  awhile, 
Mr.  Pratt  having  invested  $55,000,  sent  an  agent  to 
Gouldsboro  to  investigate  affairs. 

The  books  seemed  to  be  so  mixed  that  it  was 
quite  impossible  to  ascertain  just  how  the  firm  stood. 
Gould  soon  saw  that  his  partner  was  becoming  sus- 
picious and  determined  to  be  ready  for  him.  On 
the  growth  of  the  business  Gould  had,  of  course, 
occasion  to  frequently  visit  New  York,  where  he 
became  acquainted  with  most  of  the  merchants  in 
the  "Swamp,"  then,  as  now,  the  center  of  the  leather 
trade.  Among  others,  he  became  acquainted  with 
Charles  M.  Leupp,  a  merchant  of  the  old  school, 
honorable  and  correct  in  all  his  dealings.  He  was  a 
man  of  great  refinement  and  of  poetic  temperament, 
and  possessed  many  literary  and  artistic  tastes.  He 
was  a  man  of  wealth  and  owned  a  fine  mansion  on 
the  corner  of  Madison  avenue  and  Twenty-fifth 
street.  This  mansion  is  still  standing,  but  has  been 
altered  into  an  apartment  house  In  Mr.  Leupp's 
time  it  was  probably  the  handsomest  and  best  con- 
structed private  dwelling  in  the  city  and  cost  about 
5150,000. 

It  was  an  evil  day  for  Mr.  Leupp  when  Gould 
came  to  him  and  proposed  that  he  advance  the 
money  to  purchase  Mr.  Pratt's  interest  in  the  tan- 
nery. That  was  the  beginning  of  Mr.  Leupp's 
troubles,  but  at  that  time  he  considered  the  propo- 
sition an  advantageous  one  and  he  consented  to 
advance  the  cash.  Gould  never  seems  to  have 
had  at  any  period  in  his  career  any  difficulty  in 


GOULD  AND  THE  TANNERY  WAR. 


41 


interesting  the  wealthiest  and  most  powerful  men 
in  his  schemes.  He  has  himself  said  that  it  is  just 
as  easy  to  obtain  the  acquaintance  and  secure  the 
friendship  of  the  most  powerful  as  of  the  most 
insignificant  if  only  one  will  set  about  it  in  the 
right  way.  Well,  Gould  returned  to  Gouldsboro 
with  Leupp's  backing.  He  found  Pratt  looking 
over  the  books  and  puzzled  by  their  intricacies.  He 
discovered  that  Gould  had  started  a  private  bank  at 
Stroudsburg  in  his  own  name,  and  he  became  suspi- 
cious that  the  firm's  funds  were  used  in  the  bank. 
Pratt  then  demanded  an  explanation  and  finally 
threatened  to  close  up  the  tannery  and  dissolve  the 
partnership.  Gould  protested  that  this  would  ruin 
him,  when  Pratt  said  that  he  must  buy  or  sell.  This 
was  what  Gould  was  waiting  for,  and  he  told  Mr. 
Pratt  to  make  him  an  offer.  Pratt  gave  his  ener- 
getic young  partner  the  choice  of  two  alternatives, 
either  to  take  Sio,000  for  his  interest  in  the  business 
and  retire  from  the  firm,  or  pay  1^40,000  for  the  inter- 
est of  the  senior  partner.  Gould  got  ten  days'  time 
in  which  to  make  up  his  mind,  and  at  the  expiration 
of  that  period  surprised  Mr.  Pratt  by  buying  him 
out  on  his  own  terms. 

Of  course  he  drew  on  Leupp  for  the  money. 
This  made  Gould  a  partner  of  Leupp  with  full 
powers.  He  continued  with  Leupp  the  policy  he 
had  begun  with  Pratt.  He  branched  out  in  many 
speculations  in  Leupp's  name,  but  without  his 
knowledge.  It  is  said  that  he  bought  another  tan- 
nery^ attempted  to  get  up  a  "corner"  in  hides,  and  in 


42 


GOULD  AND  THE  TANNERY  WAR. 


other  ways  entered  into  many  hazardous  enter- 
prises. He  continued  to  draw  on  Leupp  for  money 
and  to  display  his  incapacity  as  a  book-keeper  until 
Leupp  became  suspicious,  just  as  Pratt  had.  Mean- 
while the  panic  of  1857  had  swept  over  the  country 
and  unsettled  all  business  operations,  and  when 
Leupp  discovered  the  extent  in  which  he  had  been 
involved  in  Gould's  speculations  he  thought  that  he 
was  ruined.  He  went  to  his  magnificent  home  one 
night  and,  in  a  fit  of  despondency,  shot  himself  dead. 
It  is  not  certain  but  that  Gould's  schemes  would 
have  turned  out  all  right,  and  to  Leupp's,  as  well  as 
to  Gould's  advantage,  but  it  is  a  fact  that  Leupp's 
partners  and  heirs  have  always  felt  very  bitter 
against  Gould,  and  could  not  help  believing  that  he 
was  indirectly  the  cause  of  Leupp's  sad  and  un- 
timely end. 

Mr.  Leupp's  old-fashioned  notions  had  been 
terribly  shocked,  for  Gould  had  gone  into  corners 
in  hides  and  other  tanneries  which  might  and  might 
not  have  turned  out  well.  When  he  found  that  his 
partner  had  bought  not  only  all  the  hides  then  in 
the  market  but  all  that  were  to  arrive  in  the  ensuing 
six  months,  he  literally  lost  his  reason,  and  his 
suicide  occurred  after  a  stormy  interview  with 
Gould,  who  remained  imperturbably  cool  and 
simply  turned  on  his  heel  and  left  the  office. 

It  is  related  that  in  the  excitement  and  passion 
of  Black  Friday  when  a  mob  surged  through  Wall 
street,  a  voice  was  heard. above  the  tumult  shouting 
the  awful  question: 


GOULD  AND  THE  TANNERY  WAR. 


43 


"Who  killed  Leupp?" 

And  the  answer  is  said  to  have  come  from  a 
hundred  throats: 
"Jay  Gould!" 

Prior  to  the  fatal  shot,  Gould  had  arranged  with 
Congressman  Alley,  of  Massachusetts,  to. take  the 
works  and  thus  relieve  Luepp  and  Lee,  who  was 
also  a  partner.  But  the  suicide  of  the  senior  partner 
stopped  the  final  consummation  of  this  plan,  and, 
Gould  always  insisted,  stopped  the  way  to  a  profit- 
able continuance  of  the  works. 

Mr.  Gould  then  negotiated  with  Leupp's  daugh- 
ters for  the  control  of  the  tannery.  It  is  stated  that 
they  demanded  sixty  thousand  dollars,  the  amount 
Leupp  had  originally  advanced.  Gould  agreed  to 
this,  but  proposed  a  plan  by  which  the  payments 
should  extend  over  a  term  of  years — ten  thousand 
dollars  cash  and  a  like  amount  every  year  until  the 
entire  indebtedness  had  been  liquidated.  When  the 
papers  were  drawn  up  it  was  found  Gould  had  made 
no  provision  for  paying  interest.  Negotiations 
were  broken  off,  and  Mr.  Lee,  a  relative  and  partner 
of  Leupp,  hastened  to  Gouldsboro  and  took  posses- 
sion of  the  tannery  in  the  name  of  Leupp's  heirs, 
taking  the  precaution  to  hire  a  lot  of  men  to  help 
him  barricade  and  guard  it.  Gould  arrived  a  day  or 
two  later  and  determined  to  capture  the  tannery  at 
all  hazards.  Gouldsboro  was  a  village  of  about 
three  hundred  inhabitants,  situated  some  distance 
from  the  railway  station,  and  besides  the  tannery 
the  most  important  building  was  the  hotel.  Mr. 


44 


GOULD  AND  THE  TANNERY  WAR. 


Lcc,  who,  like  Mr.  Leupp,  is  described  as  an  honor- 
able, warm-hearted  man,  but  with  more  courage  and 
grit,  had  the  tannery  guarded  by  about  thirty  or 
forty  men  whom  he  had  hired  at  Scranton. 

Gould,  as  soon  as  he  arrived,  began  active  oper- 
ations. He  interested  nearly  the  entire  population 
of  the  place  in  his  behalf.  They  knew  him  and  Lee 
was  a  comparative  stranger.  Gould  told  every 
one  he  met  that  he  owned  the  tannery,  that  Lee 
and  his  cutthroats  were  endeavoring  to  get  the 
property  away  from  him,  and  that  if  they  succeeded 
the  business  would  go  to  wreck  and  ruin  and  the 
place  would  suffer  a  big  loss.  He  had  soon  an 
armed  gang  of  about  150  men  around  him  prepared 
to  fight  for  him.  They  were  a  tough  looking  set  of 
men.  He  took  them  to  the  hotel,  where  he  gave 
them  an  oyster  supper,  and  then  mounting  an  empty 
box  addressed  his  forces,  telling  them  to  use  no 
unnecessary  violence,  but  to  "be  sure  and  get  the 
tannery."  This  was  probably  the  first  and  only 
speech  Gould  ever  made  in  all  his  life.  Filled  with 
oysters  and  whisky,  the  men  made  a  determined 
charge  on  the  tannery,  Gould  directing  everything, 
but  prudently  keeping  in  the  background,  for  he 
heard  that  Lee  had  a  loaded  musket  ready  for  him. 
The  battle  was  fierce  but  short.  The  barricaded 
doors  were  battered  in  and  Lee's  men  were  driven 
from  the  tannery.  Two  men  w^ere  badly  wounded. 
One  of  Lee's  party  was  shot  through  the  breast. 
Warrants  were  issued  for  the  arrest  of  all  concerned. 
Many  of  the  men  fled  from  the  place  never  to  return. 


GOULD  AND  THE  TANNERY  WAR. 


45 


Those  arrested  were  afterward  released  on  bail. 
Gould  was  left  in  possession  of  the  property,  but  it 
did  him  little  good.  Lee  began  legal  proceedings 
against  him  and  Gould  brought  counter-suits,  and 
this  litigation  was  continued  until  the  business  as 
destroyed  and  the  tannery  abandoned. 

In  the  New  York  Herald  of  March  i6,  i860,  is 
given  the  following  account  of  the  battle: 

TANNERY  INSURRECTION  IN  PENNSYLNANIA. 
BATTLE  BETWEEN  THE  FORCES  OF  THE  SWAMP  LEATHER 
DEALERS — THE  LEUPP  AND  LEE  TANNERY,  IN 
GOULDSBORO,  ATTACKED  AND  DEFENDED — 
SIDES'OF  LEATHER  USED  FOR  BREAST- 
W'ORKS — INSURGENTS  TWO  HUN- 
DRED STRONG  —  THE  TAN- 
NERY TAKEN  —  FLIGHT 
OF  THE  DEFENDERS 
— WOUNDED  FOUR. 

About  half-past  ten  o'clock  on  Tuesday  morning 
the  lock  was  wrenched  from  the  stable,  the  men 
having  been  concentrated  into  the  tannery  and  the 
stable  being  ungu?.rded.  A  little  past  twelve  the 
tannery  itself  was  attacked  by  a  mob  variously  esti- 
mated at  from  one  hundred  and  eighty  to  two 
hundred  and  fifty  men,  armed  with  axes,  mus- 
kets, rifles  and  other  weapons.  Without  a  de- 
mand of  possession  or  summons  to  surrender,  the 
doors  were  beaten  in,  and  but  a  few  blows  had  been 
struck  by  the  assailants  before  they  began  to  fire 
ball  and  buckshot  through  the  building,  raking  it  in 


46 


GOULD  AND  THE  TANNERY  WAR. 


every  direction.  As  vigorous  a  defense  was  made, 
by  a  force  of  fifteen  men  in  the  story  attacked,  with 
tannery  sticks,  stones  and  four  revolvers,  as  was 
possible  against  such  overwhelming  odds.  The  tan- 
nery was  finally  carried  on  all  sides,  and  those  who 
did  not  escape  were  violently  flung  from  the  win- 
dows and  doors,  while  the  assailants  rushed  through 
the  buildings,  yelling  like  Indians,  pursuing  the 
fugitives  with  their  guns  in  every  direction.  In  the 
action  many  contusions  were  received  and  four  gun- 
shot wounds,  and  had  it  not  been  for  the  large  num- 
ber of  sides  of  leather  hung  up  the  lofts,  very  few  of 
the  defending  party  would  have  escaped  without 
wounds. 

Mr.  Jay  Gould,  in  his  version  of  the  affair,  in 
which  he  endeavors  to  exculpate  himself,  says: 

"I  quietly  selected  fifty  men,  commanding  the 
reserve  to  keep  aloof.  I  divided  them  into  two  com- 
panies, one  of  which  I  despatched  to  the  upper  end 
of  the  building,  directing  them  to  take  off  the  boards, 
while  I  headed  the  other  to  open  a  large  front  door. 
I  burst  open  the  door  and  sprang  in.  I  was  imme- 
diately saluted  with  a  shower  of  balls,  forcing  my 
men  to  retire,  and  I  brought  them  up  a  second  and 
third  time  and  pressed  them  into  the  building,  and 
by  this  time  the  company  at  the  upper  end  of  the 
tannery  had  succeeded  in  effecting  an  entrance  and 
the  firing  now  became  general  on  all  sides  and  the 
bullets  were  whistling  in  every  direction.  After  a 
hard  contested  struggle  on  both  sideS  we  became 
the  victors,  and  our  opponents  went  flying  from  the 


GOULD  AND  THE  TANNERY  WAR. 


47 


tannery,  some  of  them  making  fearful  leaps  from 
the  second  story." 

After  this  depreciation  of  value  in  the  tannery 
property,  Gould's  ready  resources  were  so  exhausted 
that  it  is  related  that  he  had  to  borrow  the  money 
to  pay  his  railroad  fare  to  New  York.  It  is  proba- 
ble that  no  man  in  this  or  any  other  country  has 
ever  been  a  party  to  so  many  lawsuits  as  Gould. 
From  the  time  of  the  contest  over  the  map  business 
there  was  scarcely  a  day  during  his  whole  life  that 
he  did  not  have  some  litigation  on  his  hands.  This 
ends  the  early  chapters  of  Gould's  life.  He  now 
entered  upon  that  career  in  the  metropolis  which 
has  made  his  name  familiar  around  the  globe. 

It  is  doubtful  if  many  young  men,  before  the  age 
of  twenty-four  years,  have  passed  through  as  many 
and  as  varied  experiences  as  these  of  Jay  Gould. 
All  his  training  now  for  several  years  had  been  in 
the  line,  first,  of  competition  with  others  in  the  same 
business  as  his  own,  and  then  in  direct  conflict  and 
war  with  those  who  had  been  his  associates.  He 
had  learned  not  only  to  conquer  his  enemies,  but  to 
conquer  his  friends.  He  had  thoroughly  developed 
and  made  apparent  to  every  one  who  came  in  contact 
with  him  that  spirit  that  remained  with  him  through 
all  his  life,  the  mania  for  the  aggrandizement  of  his 
own  fortune,  no  matter  whose  money  must  be  lost 
for  him  to  gain  it.  The  last  chapter  of  his  tannery 
experiences  was  a  dark  one,  and  there  is  nothing  in 
it  to  be  held  up  for  admiration  by  any  one,  but 
rather  as  an  example  of  the  first  notable  evil  in  the 


48  GOULD  AND  THE  TANNERY  WAR. 

nature  of  financial  wrecking  of  the  many  that  are 
found  in  a  complete  retrospect  of  his  life.  Gould 
himself  always  realized  the  discreditability  of  his 
actions  in  the  tannery  matter,  as  is  evidenced  by  the 
way  in  which  he  tried  to  smooth  it  over  before  the 
investigating  committee  ten  years  later.  As  a  mat- 
ter of  fact,  he  probably  realized  and  recognized 
whatever  else  he  did  that  was  evil  in  his  far  greater 
financial  operations  during  the  next  three  decadep, 
but  if  he  did,  he  gave  no  sign  nor  did  he  ever  indi- 
cate that  he  had  any  regrets  in  his  career. 


CHAPTER  V. 


Gould's  romantic  marriage  and  his  first 
railroad. 


V  Y  after  the  tannery  war,  he  was  almost  impover- 
ished. He  settled  down  at  the  Everett  House,  a  com- 
fortable hotel,  and  there  he  lived  for  a  little  time 
while  waiting  for  something  to  turn  up.  Gould  was 
not  very  busy  just  then  and  used  to  wander  around 
the  city,  up  town  and  down  town,  through  Wall 
street  and  Lower  Broadway,  where  in  later  years  he 
became  such  a  power;  maybe,  even  then,  wonder- 
ing if  he  would  ever  reach  the  point  in  wealth  and 
influence  that  belonged  to  the  men  he  met,  and 
figuring,  as  every  one  does  at  times,  what  he  would 
do  if  he  were  a  millionaire.  He  knew  the  tannery 
business  thoroughly  and  had  many  influential  ac- 
quaintances in  "The  Swamp,"  which  was  the  seat 
then,  as  it  is  now,  of  the  leather  trade  in  New  York. 
But  he  most  wanted  to  get  into  the  railroad  business. 
He  believed  that  greater  opportunities  were  there 
than  in  any  other  occupation  for  the  acquiring  of 
wealth  and  influence.  So  he  bent  all  his  energies  in 
that  direction. 

One  day  just  before  the  war,  Gould  came  walk- 
ing down  the  street  toward  his  hotel,  and  looking 


Gould  reached  New  York  in  i860, 


49 


50 


GOULD  S  ROMANTIC  MARRIAGE. 


Up  toward  the  window  of  the  parlor,  he  saw  seated 
there,  looking  toward  him,  a  most  charming  young 
lady.  He  was  not  by  any  means  inclined  toward 
flirtation,  but  he  could  not  avoid  an  appearance  of 
interest  in  her,  and  he  passed  on  into  the  hotel. 
Soon  after  that  the  same  episode  was  repeated.  By 
a  little  investigation,  Mr.  Gould  learned  that  the 
young  lady  was  Miss  Ellen  Miller,  whose  father,  a 
wealthy  New  York  merchant,  was  a  member  of  the 
grocery  house  of  Philip  Dater  &  Co.  She  lived  in  a 
house  across  the  street,  and  a  delightful  flirtation 
with  the  girl  whose  pretty  face  appeared  at  the  win- 
dow preceded  any  formal  acquaintance.  Circum- 
stances, however,  permitted  them  to  meet  socially, 
and  they  became  excellently  well  acquainted.  After 
a  few  weeks,  the  acquaintance  became  more  and 
more  intiroate  and  finally  ripened  into  love.  Miss 
Miller's  father  indicated  opposition  to  their  mar- 
riage, their  desire  for  which  they  made  evident,  and 
they  were  compelled  to  seek  some  roundabout  way 
to  accomplish  their  purpose.  The  result  was,  that 
after  trying  several  ways  to  circumvent  the  unsym- 
pathetic parent,  they  decided  upon  a  secret  marriage, 
and  this  was  actually  accomplished.  There  were  no 
runaway  features  about  the  match,  except  that  to 
avoid  the  opposition  that  they  were  certain  would 
come,  they  simply  walked  to  a  minister's,  a  short 
distance  from  their  home,  and  were  married  without 
letting  any  one  know  of  it.  When  they  returned, 
Mr.  Miller  indicated  no  ill-will  at  their  action,  and 
went  to  work  to  make  the  best  of  it  all.    He  did 


Gould's  romantic  marriage. 


51 


this  by  giving  the  famous  financier  his  first  intro- 
duction into  the  railroad  business.  Mr.  Miller 
owned  some  shares  in  the  Rutland  and  Washington 
railroad.  He  asked  his  son-in-law  to  look  the  prop- 
erty over  and  see  if  anything  could  be  done  to  save 
the  investment.  The  road  was  sixty-two  miles  long, 
running  from  Troy,  New  York,  to  Rutland,  Vermont. 
The  panic  of  1857  had  left  this  road  in  a  demoralized 
condition,  and  Gould  found  that  he  could  buy  a 
majority  of  the  first  mortgage  bonds  at  ten  cents  on 
the  dollar.  He  had  now  found  the  true  field  for  his 
peculiar  talent.  He  made  himself  president,  treas- 
urer and  general  superintendent  of  the  road,  studied 
the  business  of  railroading  on  the  ground,  developed 
the  local  traffic,  and  finally  effected  the  Rensselaer 
and  Saratoga  Consolidation.  By  this  time,  both 
bonds  and  stocks  were  good  and  he  sold  the  latter 
for  one  hundred  and  twenty  dollars. 

There  has  been  no  time  when  it  was  possible 
to  estimate  the  wealth  of  Mr.  Gould,  and  as  he  was 
secretive  in  those  early  days  as  in  his  later,  there 
was  no  saying  what  he  was  worth  when  in  i860  he 
came  into  Wall  street.  One  statement  has  it  that 
when  the  firm  of  Smith,  Gould  &  Martin  was  organ- 
ized, Mr.  Gould's  possessions  amounted  to  thirty 
thousand  dollars  in  cash.  Another  is  that  when  he 
sold  out  his  holdings  in  the  Rensselaer  and  Saratoga 
Consolidation,  he  was  worth  seven  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand  dollars. 

With  a  mind  peculiarly  alert  to  all  the  influences 

which  affected  the  values  of  railway  securities,  with 
4 


52 


Gould's  romantic  marriage. 


habits  of  great  industry,  with  phenomenal  tenacity 
of  purpose,  with  a  fair  amount  at  least  of  capital  to 
back  him,  it  is  not  surprising  that  Mr.  Gould  profited 
largely  by  his  speculation  in  railway  stocks  and 
gold  during  the  war  of  the  rebellion.  The  keen- 
sighted,  intelligent  men  in  "the  Street"  at  that  time 
nearly  all  made  money,  and  Mr.  Gould  was  at  least 
a  millionaire  when  the  Confederacy  fell.  What  his 
methods  were  at  the  time  it  is  useless  to  speculate 
about.  It  was  before  the  day  when  by  absolute 
mastery  of  gigantic  railway  and  telegraph  systems 
he  could  at  his  will  depress  the  value  of  almost  any 
institution  on  which  he  fixed  his  eye  by  setting  on 
foot  a  ruinous  war  in  rates  until  he  had  made  it  to 
be  his  own  interest  to  restore  a  more  normal  and 
healthful  condition  of  affairs  by  ceasing  his  antagon- 
ism and  building  up  the  property  which  he  had 
acquired  cheaply  during  the  period  of  depression. 
But  the  details  of  his  operations  were  always  so  sub- 
tle as  to  be  shut  out  from  the  discovery  of  either 
friend  or  foe. 

Gould  was  now  fairly  on  the  way  toward  his 
colossal  fortune.  Though  friends  warned  him  against 
entering  into  the  whirlpool  of  blasted  hopes  and 
ruined  fortunes  of  Wall  street,  his  inclinations  in 
that  direction  were  too  strong  to  be  resisted.  Gould 
was  a  born  speculator.  It  is  true  that  his  great  fort- 
une was  created  mainly  in  hazardous  enterprises 
outside  of  Wall  street,  and  that  in  stock  specula- 
tions, pure  and  simple,  he  was  not  always  so  success- 
ful or  so  infallible  as  many  have  supposed,  but  by 


Gould's  romantic  marriage. 


53 


nature  and  habit  Gould  was  at  this  time  of  his  life  a 
commercial  gambler,  and  it  was  as  natural  that  he 
should  enter  Wall  street  as  for  a  duck  to  take  to 
water.  It  was  in  1859  or  i860  that  Gould  first  en- 
tered Wall  street.  It  was  not  very  long  before  he 
stepped  to  the  front  rank.  What  a  long  list  of 
brainy  and  courageous  men  do  Gould's  contempora- 
ries in  the  street  make!  With  most  of  them  Gould 
has  been  at  sword's  point,  with  a  few  he  has  been 
an  ally,  with  some  he  has  been  both  ally  and  enemy. 
Most  of  them  are  no  longer  powers  in  the  specula- 
tive world.  Some  of  them  are  dead.  Not  a  few 
have  been  overwhelmed  in  the  swift,  resistless  tor- 
rent of  stock  speculation.  Three  or  four  yet  re- 
main with  power  in  their  hands  and  millions  in  their 
vaults.  The  Vanderbilts — the  commodore,  his  son 
and  grandsons — Daniel  Drew,  James  Fisk,  Jr.,  the 
Beldens,  Commodore  Garrison,  Henry  N.  Smith, 
James  R.  Keene,  William  Heath,  George  I.  Seney, 
Gen.  Thomas,  Calvin  S.  Brice,  D.  O.  Mills,  Horace 
F.  Clark,  Alfred  Sully,  Addison  Cammack,  C.  F. 
Woerishoffer,  the  Rockefellers,  S.  M.  Kneeland,  C. 
J.  Osborn,  D.  P.  Morgan,  H.  S.  Ives,  C.  P.  Hunting- 
ton, Russell  Sage,  Cyrus  W.  Field,  John  W.  Garrett, 
Robert  Garrett,  J.  P.  Morgan,  the  Seligmans,  Brown 
Bros.,  Jay  Cooke,  Hugh  J.  Jewett,  Lathrop,  Little 
and  Austin  Corbin,  Henry  Clews,  Washington  E. 
Connor,  Burnham,  Gen.  E.  F.  Winslow,  Edward  S. 
Stokes,  S.  V.  White,  William  Dowd,  Solon  Hum- 
phreys, William  R.  Travers,  Rufus  Hatch,  Samuel 
Sloan — these  were  some  of  the  men  identified  with 


54 


Gould's  romantic  marriage. 


various  Wall  street  interests  with  whom  Gould  has 
been  allied  or  at  enmity,  or  both,  during  his  long 
career  in  the  street.  That  he  has  been  able  among 
all  these  financial  giants  to  make  himself  the  leader 
is  the  highest  evidence  that  can  be  given  of  his 
genius  in  speculation  and  railroad  financiering.  As 
we  read  some  of  these  names  there  arise  before  our 
eyes  the  visions  of  murder,  of  suicide,  of  bankruptcy, 
of  the  debtor's  prison,  of  the  felon's  cell,  of  ruined 
fortunes  and  blasted  reputations.  Others  of  the 
men  have  achieved  wealth  and  honorable  names.  It 
is  interesting  to  note  that  at  the  time  Gould  first 
entered  the  street  one  of  his  fellow-boarders  at  the 
Everett  House  was  James  Gordon  Bennett,  the 
elder,  with  whose  son  and  successor  he  became  en- 
gaged in  such  bitter  business  and  personal  antag- 
onisms. 

Gould  not  only  gambled  in  Wall  street,  but  he 
defended  the  operation.  "  People,"  he  told  a  State 
Senate  Committee  which  was  investigating  into  stock 
and  grain  corners,  "  will  deal  in  chance.  Your  min- 
ister, doctor  and  barber  all  have  the  same  interest  in 
speculation.  Would  you  not,  if  you  stopped  it,  pro- 
mote gambling?" 

Jay  Gould  was  twenty-three  years  old  when  he 
went  into  Wall  street  as  a  broker.  In  addition  to 
whatever  amount  of  money  he  had,  he  had  the  con- 
fidence of  two  or  three  large  capitalists,  which  is  the 
best  capital  of  all  for  beginning  a  business  of  specu- 
lation. He  started  on  his  Wall  street  career  in  a 
small  office  and  frequently  took  his  stand  with  the 


Gould's  romantic  marriage. 


55 


"  curb-stone"  brokers.  He  made  money  right  along. 
In  i860  he  became  intimately  acquainted  with  Henry 
N.  Smith,  who  was  then  one  of  the  big  men  in  Wall 
street.  Soon  the  firm  of  Smith,  Gould  &  Martin  was 
formicd  and  it  was  prosperous  from  the  start.  Gould 
made  a  careful  study  of  the  railroad  situation  and 
became  an  expert  in  the  manipulation  of  railroad 
securities  in  the  speculative  market.  He  paid  the 
closest  attention  to  business,  allowing  himself  few 
of  the  social  pleasures  of  which  young  men  are 
usually  fond.  He  had  no  small  vices,  being  a  teeto- 
taler. 

During  the  war  of  the  rebellion,  the  firm  did  a 
large  business  in  railway  securities,  and  also  made  a 
great  deal  of  money  speculating  in  gold.  Gould  had 
private  sources  of  information  in  the  field,  and  he 
was  able  to  turn  almost  every  success  or  defeat  of 
the  Union  army  to  profitable  account. 

At  last  Gould  had  found  his  exact  niche,  the  cor- 
ner in  which  the  railroads  were  put  away.  That 
"  corner"  was  ever  after  the  one  in  which  he  found 
both  his  labor  and  his  recreation,  his  fortune  bad 
and  good.  He  was  a  natural  railroad  magnate. 
Almost  always  he  won,  and  when  he  did  not,  it  was 
simply  because  he  attempted  schemes  that  would 
have  seemed  to  any  other  man  entirely  beyond  pos- 
sibility. From  this  time  his  history  never  loses  its 
intense  dramatic  interest  and  never  goes  back  to  the 
humdrum  life  that  he  had  abandoned.  From  this 
time,  there  could  be  no  night  in  which  Jay  Gould 
could  sleep  in  dreamless  rest,  with  no  thought  of  the 


56 


Gould's  romantic  marriage. 


morrow.  From  this  time,  there  could  be  never  a  day 
of  freedom  from  the  intenscst  strain  of  business 
anxiety.  He  had  chosen  speculation  for  a  life  work, 
and  its  cares  must  sit  upon  him.  His  could  not  be 
the  experience  of  the  man  in  mercantile  life,  or  of 
the  man  of  smaller  affairs,  who  finishes  his  work  in 
the  evening  and  goes  to  his  home  with  never  a 
thought  of  the  cares  to-morrow  will  bring.  Great 
enterprises  make  great  responsibilities.  From  this 
time  the  enormous  weight  of  the  responsibilities 
upon  Jay  Gould's  shoulders  could  never  again  lessen. 

Did  he  ever,  in  those  years  of  scheming  and 
fighting  for  wealth,  cast- his  recollection  backward 
to  the  old  days  at  Roxbury,  when  he  was  but  a  bare- 
foot farmer's  boy,  with  nothing  more  oppressive  on 
his  mind  than  the  necessity  to  go  through  the  rain 
for  the  cows,  or  to  find  the  nest  that  the  blue  hen 
had  hidden  away  some  place  in  the  hay-mow? 

There  was  little  in  the  associations  that  he  made 
during  these  first  Wall  street  years  to  remind  him  of 
those  days.  For  while  many  of  the  men  with  whom 
he  came  in  contact  had  been  like  himself,  the  sons 
of  farmers  with  the  first  years  of  their  lives  spent  far 
from  the  city,  yet  from  this  time,  all  their  ''watering" 
of  stock  was  entirely  in  the  direction  of  stocks 
which  represented  the  value  of  railroads  and  other 
properties,  and  all  their  knowledge  of  farm  products 
was  devoted  to  the  manipulation  of  grain  markets. 

As  Gould's  acquaintance  grew  larger,  and  his 
success  in  ordinary  srn^U  ventures  became  assured, 
his  disposition  began   to   demand  something  of 


Gould's  romantic  marriage. 


57 


greater  magnitude,  something  with  more  satisfaction 
in  it  for  that  appetite  that  was  already  becoming 
insatiable.  A  few  small  railroad  ventures  were  car- 
ried through  in  a  manner  bordering  upon  perfection, 
and  this  increased  the  confidence  in  him  of  those 
speculators  who  were  already  his  acquaintances. 
The  way  opened  for  him  to  enter  into  the  manipula- 
tions of  Erie,  and,  as  before,  when  opportunity  came 
he  recognized  and  grasped  it. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


Gould's  assault  upon  erie. 

THE  most  thrilling,  the  most  discreditable  portion 
of  Gould's  career,  is  contained  in  the  ten  years 
following  the  close  of  the  war  of  the  rebellion.  The 
blackest  pages  in  the  history  of  American  railways 
comprise  the  chapter  relating  to  the  Erie  and  the 
most  shameful  efforts  to  wreck  the  fortunes  of  a 
thousand  men  for  the  aggrandizement  of  the  fort- 
unes of  a  few,  were  made  in  connection  with  the 
schemes  that  resulted  in  "Black  Friday." 

Nothing  in  the  Credit  Mobilier  and  the  history 
of  the  rise  of  the  Pacific  railroads  equals  in  down- 
right violation  of  sacred  trusts,  in  absolute  plunder 
of  vast  properties,  and  in  wholesale  bribery  and 
corruption,  the  record  of  Erie.  Even  Mr.  Gould,  in 
his  sworn  autobiography  in  that  celebrated  investi- 
gation before  the  committee  on  labor  and  education, 
while  careful  to  give  minute  details  about  other 
periods  of  his  history,  significantly  preserved  an 
entire  silence  as  to  Erie  and  "Black  Friday" — two 
incidents  in  his  career  which  nothing  but  an  effort 
to  conceal  could  explain  his  silence  regarding. 
That  this  is  no  exaggeration  of  language,  an  exam- 
ination of  the  facts  will  show.  There  is  no  intention 
to  speak  maliciously  of  Gould.    Beside  an  open 


Gould's  assault  upon  erie. 


59 


grave,  charity  and  forgetfulness  stand  guard  on 
either  side.  But  the  lesson  of  Gould's  career  would 
be  lost,  if  even  at  this  time  the  facts  were  not  plainly 
and  openly  told.  To  say  that  Gould  ruthlessly 
plundered  the  Erie  railway  is  to  speak  the  plain 
truth. 

Fortunately  the  record  of  Erie,  notwithstanding 
Mr.  Gould's  silence,  can  be  told  from  authoritative 
testimony.  In  his  famous  "Chapter  of  Erie,"  pub- 
lished in  the  North  American  Review,  in  1869, 
Charles  Francis  Adams  gives  a  thrilling  account  of 
Erie  from  the  time  Daniel  Drew  engaged  in  his 
famous  war  with  Commodore  Vanderbilt,  to  the 
time  when  that  unfortunate  road  was  in  complete 
control  of  Jay  Gould  and  James  Fisk,  Jr.  Mr. 
Adams'  history  stopped  short  in  the  middle  of  the 
story,  but  the  record  of  Erie,  from  1869  till  Mr. 
Gould  was  driven  from  power  in  1872,  is  given  in 
the  report  of  the  legislative  inquiry  in  1873,  and  of 
the  Hepburn  investigation  of  1879. 

It  is  a  curious  fact  that  years  after  writing  this 
"chapter"  Mr.  Adams,  having  become  president  of 
the  Union  Pacific,  sat  in  the  same  Board  of  Direct- 
ors with  Gould,  but  only  for  a  comparatively  brief 
period,  and  Mr.  Adams  never  repudiated  or  recalled 
his  early  history  of  Gould  in  Erie.  It  is  a  striking 
illustration,  however,  of  the  power  of  millions  that 
Gould  should  live  to  sit  in  the  same  board  with  the 
representative  of  the  aristocratic  Adams  family, 
which  furnished  two  Presidents  to  the  United  States; 
that  after  an  effort  to  involve  the  administration  of 


6o 


GOULD  S  ASSAULT  UPON  ERIE. 


President  Grant  in  the  disgrace  of  Black  Friday,  he 
should,  in  after  years,  be  joined  with  him  in  business 
enterprises;  that  after  having  been  publicly  branded 
as  an  unscrupulous  gambler  in  a  Congressional 
report  written  by  James  A.  Garfield,  he  should  be 
sought  for  to  render  aid  to  secure  Garfield's  election 
as  president,  and  that,  though  not  seeking  to  join 
the  social  circles  in  which  the  Astors  are  leaders,  he 
was  able  to  induce  John  Jacob  Astor  to  sit  with  him 
in  the  Western  Union  Board  of  Directors. 

Twenty  years  ago,  after  Mr.  Adams  wrote  his 
"Chapter  of  Erie,"  he  was  himself  president  of  the 
Union  Pacific,  and  it  must  have  given  Mr.  Gould  the 
keenest  satisfaction  to  have  been  the  occasion  of  his 
retirement  from  that  position.  The  railway  was  in 
a  bad  way  financially — had  a  big  floating  debt — and 
Mr.  Gould  and  his  friends  stepped  in,  gained  control 
of  the  property  the  second  time,  retired  Mr.  Adams 
from  the  presidency  and  secured  an  adjustment  of 
the  floating  debt.  It  was  suggested  to  Mr.  Gould  at 
this  time  that  he  might  write  a  "Chapter  of  Union 
Pacific"  covering  the  history  of  the  Adams  adminis- 
tration. But  whatever  there  may  have  been  lacking 
in  administrative  vigor  in  Mr.  Adams'  presidency, 
he  retired  without  any  blot  on  the  family  escutcheon. 

When  Gould  entered  Wall  street  Erie  was  one  of 
the  most  active  stocks  on  the  list  of  the  Stock  Ex- 
change. It  was  natural  that  he  should  drift  into  its 
speculation,  and  his  connection  with  the  Cleveland 
and  Pittsburg  led  him  naturally  into  Erie.  His  old 
acquaintances  were  surprised  to  hear  one  day  that 


Gould's  assault  upon  erie. 


6i 


he  had  become  a  director  and  a  controlling  spirit  of 
this  great  road.    This  was  in  1867. 

But  now  let  us  quote  a  little  plain  language  from 
Charles  Francis  Adams  in  order  to  get  into  the 
atmosphere  of  Erie  at  this  time: 

'*Yet  freebooters  are  not  extinct,"  he  wrote. 
"They  have  only  transferred  their  operations  to  the 
land,  and  have  conducted  them  in  more  or  less 
accordance  with  the  forms  of  law,  until  at  last  so 
great  a  proficiency  have  they  attained  that  the  com- 
merce of  the  world  is  more  equally  but  far  more  heav- 
ily taxed  in  their  behalf  than  would  ever  have  entered 
into  their  wildest  hopes,  while  outside  the  law  they 
simply  make  all  comers  stand  and  deliver.  *  *  * 
Gambling  is.  a  business  now,  where  formerly  it  was  a 
disreputable  excitement.  Cheating  at  cards  was 
always  disgraceful.  Transactions  of  a  similar  char- 
acter under  the  euphemistic  names  of  'operating,' 
'cornering' and  the  like  are  not  so  regarded.  *  *  * 
No  better  illustration  of  the  fantastic  disguises  which 
the  worst  and  most  familiar  evils  of  history  assume 
as  they  meet  us  in  the  actual  movement  of  our  own 
day  could  be  afforded  than  was  seen  in  the  events 
attending  what  are  known  as  the  Erie  wars  of  the 
year  1868." 

In  these  wars  Gould  was  an  active  spirit;  and  if 
Mr.  Adams  had  written  in  1873  instead  of  1869  he 
would  have  made  his  language  still  stronger. 

Before  his  entrance  into  Erie  Gould  had  become 
acquainted  with  James  Fisk,  Jr.,  and  the  former, 
with  that  unerring  judgment  of  men  which  was 


62 


Gould's  assault  upon  erie. 


always  one  of  the  elements  of  his  success,  soon  per- 
ceived in  Fisk  the  qualities  which  supplied  his  own 
deficiences.  Fisk  was  the  son  of  a  Vermont  peddler 
and  followed  the  calling  himself  for  some  time,  and 
in  it  learned  the  great  art  of  driving  a  hard  and 
shrewd  bargain.  Wholly  uneducated,  his  natural 
ability  in  the  line  of  making  money  was  very  great.  ' 
Gould  was  timid  and  shrank  from  publicity.  Fisk 
was  bold  and  loved  notoriety.  Gould  had  many 
refinements  of  mind  and  was  of  a  domestic  nature. 
Fisk  was  coarse,  sensual  and  fond  of  display.  He 
became  the  colonel  of  a  militia  regiment,  and  with 
great  delight  used  to  put  on  his  uniform  and  ride  in 
front  of  his  command.  He  used  to  create  a  sensa- 
tion by  riding  in  a  carriage  with  six  horses  in  ques- 
tionable female  company.  He  considered  it  one  of 
the  choisest  prerogatives  of  his  position  of  vice-pres- 
ident and  comptroller  of  Erie  to  direct  the  theater 
that  adjoined  the  railway  offices  in  the  Grand  Opera 
House.  While  Gould  did  not  have  the  inclination 
or  courage  to  do  these  things  he  did  not  hesitate 
to  use  Fisk  in  every  available  way  and  to  hide  his 
own  personality  behind  that  of  his  partner.  In  those 
days  Fisk  seemed  to  play  the  more  prominent  part, 
and  Gould,  in  public  estimation,  was  a  secondary 
character.  When  anything  was  done  it  was  Fisk 
that  bore  the  brunt  of  popular  criticism  and  indig- 
nation. Yet  the  facts  as  they  are  now  known  show 
that  Gould's  was  the  master  mind;  Fisk  was  simply 
his  right  arm.    ''With  Gould  to  plan  and  Fisk  to 


Gould's  assault  upon  erie. 


63 


act,"  said  Gen.  Francis  Barlow,  in  1872,  "they  were  a 
strong  team." 

At  the  time  Gould  and  Fisk  entered  into  Erie, 
Daniel  Drew  was  the  master  of  that  great  trunk  line. 
Drew  was  one  of  the  most  extraordinary  characters 
in  Wall  street  history.  Both  pious  and  unscrupu- 
lous, he  founded  atheological  seminary  and  wrecked 
a  railroad  with  equal  fervor.  He  was  a  director  and 
treasurer  of  Erie,  and  used  these  positions  simply 
for  speculative  purposes.  He  was  known  in  his  day 
as  ''the  great  speculative  director."  His  biggest 
piece  of  "financiering"  was  to  get  himself  apparently 
cornered  in  Erie  stock,  and  then  to  appear  in  the 
street  with  a  block  of  stock  which  had  been  converted 
from  bonds  issued  with  an  obscure  provision  enti- 
tling the  holders  to  convert  them  into  stock.  Gould 
later  on  repeated  this  trick  with  success,  both  in 
Erie  and  Jersey  Central. 

Soon  after  Gould  and  Fisk  entered  Erie,  Drew  be- 
came engaged  in  his  celebrated  contest  with  Commo- 
dore Vanderbilt,  and  in  this  contest  he  had  their  able 
assistance.  The  first  and  great  Vanderbilt  was  cast 
in  a  larger  mould  than  Drew.  The  latter  was  simply 
a  speculator.  Vanderbilt  was  a  creator  of  property. 
He  was  the  first  of  the  line  of  railroad  kings.  Laying 
the  foundations  of  his  great  wealth  in  the  steamboat 
and  steamship  business,  he  soon  drifted  into  railroad 
operations,  clearly  seeing  that  in  the  development 
in  the  great  inland  commerce  of  America  there  were 
larger  and  quicker  profits  to  be  obtained  than  in  the 
export  trade. 


64 


GOULD*S  ASSAULT  UPON  ERIE. 


Vanderbilt  had  obtained  control  of  the  Harlem 
and  Hudson  River  roads;  he  now  aimed  at  the 
ownership  of  Erie.  Space  will  not  permit  the  telling 
of  the  story  of  this  famous  contest.  It  can  be  found 
in  detail  in  Mr.  Adams'  interesting  chapter.  It  is  a 
story  of  extraordinary  stock  operations,  of  millions 
lost  and  won;  of  securities  issued  by  the  bushel  and 
with  little  or  no  regard  for  law  or  equity;  of  large 
and  intricate  litigation;  of  judges  bought,  legislators 
bribed,  of  directors  defying  injunctions  and  fleeing 
to  another  state  to  escape  arrest.  Vanderbilt,  hav- 
ing been  defeated  in  other  efforts  to  get  his  fingers 
on  the  Erie  road,  resolved,  if  possible,  to  buy  a  con- 
trolling interest,  and  his  brokers  were  set  at  work  on 
this  difficult  job.  Drew  resolved  to  let  Vanderbilt 
have  as  much  stock  as  he  wanted,  but  entered  into  a 
bargain  with  Gould  and  Fisk  by  which  the  railroad 
king  should  be  defeated  by  issuing  and  marketing  an 
unlimited  number  of  new  securities.  So  Drew  sold 
and  Vanderbilt  bought.  The  latter,  having  in 
remembrance  Drew's  famous  convertible  stock  trick, 
resorted  to  the  courts  to  prevent  him  from  issuing 
any  more  stock.  Injunctions  were  issued  enjoining 
Drew  and  all  the  directors  of  the  road  from  issuing 
any  stock.  Counter-injunctions  were  obtained  by  the 
Drew-Gould  party.  One  judge  would  issue  an  order 
commanding  certain  things  to  be  done  which  an- 
other judge  simultaneously  commanded  should  not 
be  done.  Judges  in  New  York,  Brooklyn,  Albany 
and  Binghamton  issued  contradictory  injunctions. 
Such  a  legal  pandemonium  has  never  been  seen 


GOULD  S  ASSAULT  UPON  ERIE. 


65 


before  or  since.  The  courts  ran  riot  and  law  became 
another  name  for  plunder.  In  this  scene — the  black- 
est in  the  history  of  American  jurisprudence — the 
notorious  Judge  Barnard  loomed  up  conspicuously, 
and  a  little  later  Judge  Cardoza,  shrewd,  learned, 
crafty  and  venal — the  modern  Lord  Bacon — ap- 
peared on  the  scene.  At  first  Barnard  was  Vander- 
bilt's  judge.  Later,  when  Vanderbilt  had  no  further 
use  for  him,  he  became  Gould's  judge.  His  other 
master  was  Tweed. 

In  the  meantime,  regardless  of  injunctions.  Drew 
and  his  aides  calmly  proceeded  to  carry  out  their 
carefully  matured  plans  to  issue  new  stock.  It  was 
agreed  that  fifty  thousand  shares  of  new  stock  should 
be  delivered  to  the  Wall  street  firms  of  which  Gould 
and  Fisk  were  members.  Without  going  into  the 
details  of  the  intrigue,  it  is  sufficient  to  say  that  it 
was,  at  least  for  the  time  being,  successful.  When 
the  fifty  thousand  shares  were  thrown  on  the  market 
the  price  of  Erie  fell  from  eighty-three  to  seventy- 
one.  Vanderbilt  found  that  he  had  bought  at  high 
figures  a  lot  of  Erie  stock,  but  that  he  was  no  nearer 
control  than  ever.  Drew  raked  in  about  seven 
million  dollars  of  Vanderbilt's  money,  and  Gould 
and  Fisk  shared  in  the  profits.  Then  orders  were 
issued  to  arrest  the  Drew  directors  for  contempt  of 
court.  Receiving  intelligence  of  this,  they  hastily 
packed  up  their  papers  and  securities,  and  thrusting 
them  into  their  pockets  and  valises,  they  beat  a 
hasty  retreat  to  Jersey  City.  Over  six  million 
dollars  in  securities   were   carried  in  one  coach. 


66 


Gould's  assault  upon  erie. 


Among  this  precious  company,  of  course,  were  Gould 
and  Fisk.  In  Jersey  they  were  safe  from  the  opera- 
tion of  New  York  law.  They  calmly  proceeded  to 
have  the  Erie  incorporated  as  a  New  Jersey  institu- 
tion, at  the  same  time  laboring  to  get  the  New  York 
legislature  to  pass  a  bill  to  legalize  the  issue  of  fifty 
thousand  shares  of  stock,  a  transaction  which  some 
one  at  that  time  likened  to  an  attempt  "to  legalize 
counterfeit  money."  It  was  not.conscientious  scruples 
which  caused  the  legislature  to  hesitate  to  pass  this 
bill;  it  was  simply  a  question  of  cash.  Vanderbilt 
was  still  in  the  fight  to  protect  his  interests,  and  it 
was  a  question  of  who  had  the  biggest  purse.  Mean- 
while, Peter  B.  Sweeny — the  brains  of  the  Tweed 
ring — had  been  made,  temporarily,  receiver  of  the 
road,  and  though  he  never  actually  did  anything  in 
that  position.  Judge  Barnard  ordered  that  he  be  paid 
one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars  for  his 
services.    Poor  Erie  had  to  foot  the  bill. 

The  Erie  people  needed  a  first-class  representa- 
tive at  Albany  to  watch  their  interests  before  the 
legislature.  Gould  was  selected  as  the  fittest  man 
to  act  in  the  capacity  of  a  lobbyist.  First  giving 
out  that  he  was  going  to  Ohio,  Gould  quietly 
slipped  up  to  Albany,  with  five  hundred  thousand 
dollars  of  Erie  cash  in  his  pocket.  Here  in  a  day 
or  two  he  was  arrested,  but  released  on  five  hundred 
dollars  bail  to  appear  in  a  New  York  court  on 
Saturday.  He  appeared  on  that  day,  but  his 
attorneys  secured  a  postponement,  and  he  was 
allowed  to  return  to  Albany  in  charge  of  an  under- 


Gould's  assault  upon  erie. 


67 


sheriff.  Arriving  in  Albany  Mr.  Gould  was  con- 
veniently taken  sick,  and  unable  to  return  to  New 
York  to  attend  the  court  proceedings,  though  he 
drove  to  the  capitol  in  a  snowstorm.  The  officer 
reported  him  to  the  court  as  a  "runaway,"  but  the 
matter  was  afterward  settled,  and,  in  the  language 
of  Mr.  Adams,  he  "assiduously  cultivated  a  thorough 
understanding  between  himself  and  the  legislature." 
In  this  he  was  materially  aided  by  the  cash  with 
which  his  pockets  were  so  liberally  filled.  Corrup- 
tion ran  high.  One  senator  was  recorded  to  have 
accepted  seventy-five  thousand  dollars  from  one 
side  and  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  from-  the 
other.  One  man  was  paid  five  thousand  dollars  by 
Gould  "just,"  as  Mr.  Gould  remarked,  "to  smooth 
him  over."  The  corruption  at  this  session  was 
investigated  by  a  legislative  committee  in  1869. 
Gould  was  a  witness,  but  he  endeavored  to  conceal 
the  facts  as  much  as  possible.  In  the  famous  Erie 
investigation  of  1873,  however,  Mr.  Gould  testified 
as  follows: 

"I  was  first  elected  President  of  the  Erie  railroad 

in  1868,  and  I  was  President  in  1869,  1870  and  1871. 

I  do  not  remember  whether  I  approved  payment  to 

William  M.  Tweed  of  money  for  legal  services  while 

he  was  Senator.    I  do  not  know  whether  he  is  a 

lawyer.    He  was  a  director  of  Erie  and  a  member 

of  its   executive  committee.     I  would  not  have 

allowed  pecuniary  transactions  with  Mr.  Tweed  to 

be  put  in  the  shape  of  legal  services  if  my  attention 

had  been  called  to  them.    The  name  of  William  M. 
5 


68 


Gould's  assault  upon  erie. 


Tweed  is  in  my  handwriting.  The  words  in  my 
handwriting  are:  'William  M.  Tweed,  legal  disburse- 
ments as  per  order,  J.  G.,  ^35,000,  April  25,  1871.' 
The  approval  of  voucher,  April  5,  1869.  He  was 
Senator  in  1869,  also  in  1871  and  1872.  The  'legal 
account,  was  of  an  india-rubber  character.  I  gave 
large  amounts  in  1869,  1870,  1871  and  1872  in  the 
senatorial  and  assembly  districts.  It  was  what 
they  said  would  be  necessary  to  carry  the  day  in 
addition  to  the  amount  forwarded  by  the  committee, 
and  contributed  more  or  less  to  all  the  districts 
along  the  line  of  the  road.  We  had  to  look  after 
four  states — New  York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania 
and  Ohio.  It  was  the  custom  when  men  received 
nominations  to  come  to  me  for  contributions,  and  I 
made  them  and  considered  them  good  paying  in- 
vestments for  the  company.  In  a  republican  dis- 
trict I  was  a  strong  republican;  in  a  democratic  dis- 
trict I  was  a  democrat,  and  in  a  doubtful  district  I 
was  doubtful.  In  politics  I  was  an  Erie  railroad 
man  all  the  time.  We  had  friends  on  both  sides — 
friends  in  a  business  way.  The  amounts  contributed 
for  the  elections  were  large,  but  I  could  not  give 
any  definite  estimate.  No  names  occur  to  me  at 
the  moment.  I  am  a  poor  hand  to  remember  names. 
I  had  relations  in  several  states.  I  did  not  keep 
separate  what  I  paid  out  in  New  Jersey  from  what  I 
paid  out  in  New  York.  We  had  the  same  ground  to 
go  over  there,  and  there  has  been  so  much  of  it — it 
has  been  so  extensive — that  I  have  no  details  now 
to  refresh  my  mind.    You  might  as  well  go  back 


GOULD  S  ASSAULT  UPON  ERIE. 


69 


and  ask  me  how  many  cars  of  freight  were  moved 
on  a  particular  clay." 

This  confession  so  charmingly  frank  relates  to 
payments  before  elections,  but  there  is  every  reason 
to  believe  that  the  payments  were  continued  after 
election. 

The  state  of  things  unearthed  by  this  investiga- 
tion was  officially  described  in  the  report  of  the  leg- 
islative committee  as  follows: 

It  is  further  in  evidence  that  it  has  been  the 
custom  of  the  managers  of  the  Erie  railway,  from 
year  to  year  in  the  past,  to  spend  large  sums  to  con- 
trol elections  and  to  influence  legislation.  In  the 
year  1868  more  than  one  million  (Si, 000,000)  was 
disbursed  from  the  treasury  for  'extra  and  legal  serv- 
ices.' 

"Mr.  Gouldj  when  last  on  the  stand,  and  exam- 
ined in  relation  to  various  vouchers  shown  him, 
admitted  the  payment  during,  the  three  years  prior 
to  1872  of  large  sums  to  Barber,  Tweed  and  oth- 
ers, and  to  influence  legislation  or  elections;  these 
amounts  were  charged  in  the  Tndia-rubber  account.' 
The  memory  of  this  witness  was  very  defective  as  to 
details,  and  he  could  only  remember  large  transac- 
tions, but  could  distinctly  recall  that  he  had  been  in 
the  habit  of  sending  money  into  the  numerous  dis- 
tricts all  over  the  state,  either  to  control  nomina- 
tions or  elections  for  Senators  and  members  of 
Assembly.  Considered  that,  as  a  rule,  such  invest- 
ments paid  better  than  to  wait  till  the  men  got  to 
Albany,  and  added  the  significant  remark,  when 


70 


Gould's  assault  upon  erie. 


asked  a  question,  that  it  would  be  as  impossible  to 
specify  the  numerous  instances  as  it  would  to  recall 
to  mind  the  numerous  freight-cars  sent  over  the  Erie 
road  from  day  to  day." 

The  report  of  the  committee  concludes  as  fol- 
lows: 

"It  is  not  reasonable  to  suppose  that  the  Erie 
railway  has  been  alone  in  the  corrupt  use  of  money 
for  the  purposes  named;  but  the  sudden  revolution 
in  the  direction  of  this  company  has  laid  bare  a 
chapter  in  the  secret  history  of  railroad  manage- 
ment such  as  has  not  been  permitted  before.  It 
exposes  the  reckless  and  prodigal  use  of  money, 
wrung  from  the  people,  to  purchase  the  election  of 
the  people's  representatives  and  to  bribe  them  when 
in  office.  According  to  Mr.  Gould,  his  operations 
extended  into  four  different  states.  It  was  his 
custom  to  contribute  money  to  influence  both 
nominations  and  elections." 

Mr.  Adams  did  not  have  this  report  before  him 
when  he  wrote  his  "chapter."  His  record  closes  in 
1868,  soon  after  Mr.  Gould  had  been  elected  presi- 
dent of  the  road.  This  had  been  brought  about  in 
the  following  manner:  While  Gould  was  engaged 
in  "fixing"  the  legislature,  and  the  courts  were  filled 
with  Erie  suits,  the  various  parties  in  interest  got 
together  and  effected  a  compromise.  Vanderbilt 
got  rid  of  the  useless  stock  he  had  bought  at  high 
figures.  Drew  pocketed  his  profits  and  returned 
from  exile  in  Jersey.  The  Boston,  Hartford  and 
Erie  crowd  which  had  figured  in  these  transactions, 


Gould's  assault  upoK  erie. 


71 


having  got  all  they  could  out  of  Erie  for  the  benefit 
of  their  own  bankrupt  road,  withdrew.  All  litigation 
was  stopped  and  injunctions  revoked.  Bills  were 
rushed  through  the  legislature  favorable  to  both 
Vandcrbilt  and  Erie.  Drew  resigned  from  the  road; 
Vanderbilt  relinquished  his  ambition  for  control, 
and  the  property  was  turned  over  to  Gould  and 
Fisk.  Drew  may  have  thought  that  by  this  time  the 
poor  old  road  was  a  squeezed  lemon,  but  if  so  he 
was  mistaken,  for  Gould  and  Sage  found  that  the 
property  had  not  yet  been  worked  for  all  that  was 
in  it.  What  their  administration  cost  the  road  is 
very  plainly  set  forth  in  the  testimony  given  before 
the  Hepburn  Committee  of  1879,  by  J.  W.  Guppy, 
assistant  general  superintendent  under  Gould,  and 
for  many  years  connected  with  the  road  into  whose 
service  he  first  entered  as  a  telegraph  operator. 
When  Gould  was  ousted  from  the  control  in  March, 
1872,  the  total  stock  was  $86,536,910,  the  funded 
debt  ;^26,395,ooo  and  the  floating  debt  $2,517,301,  a 
total  of  Si  15,449,21 1,  an  increase  during  the  time  of 
Gould's  identification  with  the  road  of  $64,383,268. 
Yet  Mr.  Guppy  testified  that  not  a  dollar  of  this 
vast  sum  was  represented  by  any  additions  to  the 
road. 

At  the  time  that  the  Gould-Fisk  ring  was  suck- 
ing the  life-blood  of  Erie,  the  Tweed-Sweeny  ring 
was  plundering  the  city  of  New  York.  The  two 
were  really  one.  From  Mr.  Gould's  testimony  just 
quoted  and  from  other  facts  here  presented,  it  will 
be  seen  how  closely  allied  they  were.    Tweed  was 


72 


Gould's  assault  upon  erie. 


one  of  the  executive  committee  of  the  Erie  and  was 
paid  large  sums  for  so-called  "legal"  services.  This 
was  a  great  day  for  the  spoilsmen.  It  was  a  long 
feast  of  corruption.  Dishonesty  walked  openly  in 
the  streets,  bribery  influenced  elections  and  con- 
trolled legislatures,  and  plundering  was  a  fine  art. 
Great  as  was  Tweed  at  _this  time,  his  prosperity  was 
soon  to  end  in  flight,  capture,  imprisonment,  dis- 
grace and  death,  but  Gould  survived  the  exposure 
and  lived  to  enjoy  his  wealth  and  power. 


CHAPTER  VII. 


Gould's  victory  and  final  defeat  in  erie. 
vURING  these  years  of  Erie  conflicts,  Gould  not 


only  fought  his  enemies  most  bitterly,  but  hardly 
appreciated  the  usual  feelings  of  men  to  be  true 
to  their  friends,  Gould  and  Fisk  now  had  prac- 
tical control  of  Erie.  They  saw  the  October  elec- 
tion coming,  and  they  were  nervous.  But  the 
crops  were  good  and  Erie's  traffic  brought  in  good 
returns.  Englishmen  had  become  strangely  fasci- 
nated with  the  stock,  and  had  bought  over  100,000 
shares.  On  August  19th  the  stock  had  dropped  to 
44,  and  then  to  the  astonishment  of  Wall  street, 
the  transfer  books  were  closed,  preparatory  to  the 
annual  election  on  October  13th.  The  election  went 
off  well  for  Mr.  Gould  and  his  friends.  Peter  B. 
Sweeny  and  William  M.  Tweed  were  among  the 
new  directors.  Then,  it  is  said  Mr.  Gould  began  a 
system  of  locking  up  money.  This  culminated  on 
October  27th,  when  members  of  the  New  York  Stock 
Exchange  waited  on  Mr.  Gould,  who  had  obtained 
large  loans  on  Erie.  Mr.  Gould  told  the  committee 
that  $10,000,000  of  convertible  bonds  had  been  issued, 
half  of  which  had  been  converted  into  stock  and  the 
rest  would  be.    This  was  a  new  issue.    The  money, 

he  said,  had  been  used  to  purchase  the  $5,000,000  of 

73 


74        Gould's  victory  and  final  defeat. 


Boston,  Hartford  and  Erie.  The  committee  was 
not  satisfied.  It  wanted  to  know  if  more  stock  would 
be  issued.  Gould  replied:  "In  certain  contingen- 
cies," meaning  for  his  loans.  The  Secretary  of  the 
Exchange  afterward  said  that  the  stock  of  the  corpo- 
ration had  been  increased  from  ^34,265,300  on  July  i, 
1 868,  to  ;^ 5 7, 766, 300  on  October  24th,  or  by  235,000 
shares  within  four  months.  These  new  issues  forced 
Erie  to  35.  There  was  over  $12,000,000  in  greenbacks 
locked  up  and  all  values  were  depressed.  The  situ- 
ation was  so  serious  that  Secretary  McCuUoch  of 
the  treasury,  a  contractionist,  was  compelled  to  an- 
nounce that  if  necessary  $50,000,000  additional  cur- 
rency would  be  forthcoming  for  the  relief  of  the 
community. 

Their  next  achievement,  after  securing  entire 
possession,  was  to  corner  their  old  associate  Daniel 
Drew.  The  latter,  after  a  short  retirement  from  the 
street,  returned  to  speculation  and  naturally  drifted 
into  Erie,  but  this  time  from  the  outside.  He  was 
caught  just  as  many  times  he  had  caught  others. 
And  Gould  repeated,  only  in  a  more  aggravated 
way,  his  trick  of  issuing  new  stock  and  flooding  Wall 
street  with  it.  This  new  stock  was  issued  by  Gould 
and  Fisk  without  even  going  through  the  form  of 
consultation  with  the  other  directors.  Mr.  Adams 
calls  this  "  the  most  extraordinary  feat  of  financial 
legerdemain  which  history  has  yet  recorded."  Drew 
found  that  even  he,  old  and  experienced  in  all  the 
tricks  of  his  trade,  was  no  match  for  Gould.  He 
appealed  to  the  courts  for  relief,  but  Mr.  Gould 


Gould's  victory  and  final  defeat.  75 

fought  him  in  the  same  way.  Realizing  that  he  had 
no  other  avenue  of  escape,  Drew  actually  called  on 
Gould  and  Fisk  one  night  and  appealed  piteously 
to  be  permitted  to  get  out  without  loss,  though  his 
companions  in  loss  might  be  squeezed  to  Gould's 
heart's  content.  Gould  and  Fisk  bowed  their  aged 
associate  out  without  satisfaction  and  smiled  as  they 
closed  the  door  on  the  old  man. 

That  was  on  a  Sunday.  Next  day,  in  the  name 
of  August  Belmont,  Justice  Sutherland  was  asked  to 
enjoin  the  issue  of  any  more  new  Erie  stock  and  to 
appoint  a  receiver.  Drew  signed  the  affidavits,  but, 
to  his  chagrin,  Gould  was  ahead  of  him  by  two 
hours.  On  the  petition  of  one  Mcintosh,  a  man  in 
Gould's  employ,  Justice  Barnard  restrained  all  suits 
and  appointed  Gould  the  receiver  of  the  railroad. 
Erie  stock  fell  only  to  48. 

Justice  Barnard  allowed  Mr.  Gould  to  buy  and 
cancel  200,000  shares  of  Erie.  This  was  intended  to 
crush  Daniel  Drew,  who  had  to  have  70,000  shares  to 
deliver  in  a  few  days.  Gould's  purchases  rushed 
the  stock  to  62,  and  then  it  turned  out  that  thousands 
of  shopkeepers  and  barbers,  tailors,  and  all  sorts  of 
people,  had  a  share  or  ten  shares  of  Erie  and  wanted 
to  realize  on  them.  Gould  could  not  meet  the  rush 
of  shares  these  people  had  to  sell.  He  and  Fisk 
fought  like  tigers,  but  they  could  not  stand  the 
drain,  and  Drew  settled  his  contracts  at  57,  losing 
;^i, 500,000.  Then  Erie  fell  to  42.  The  Open  Board 
of  Brokers  refused  to  deal  in  Erie  unless  the  stock 
was  registered  at  a  reputable  banker's.    Erie  was 


76 


Gould's  victory  and  final  defeat. 


knocked  off  the  list  and  Gould  organized  a  new 
Board  of  his  own,  where  trading  in  Erie  went  on  as 
before. 

Gould  at  this  time  actually  posed  as  an  anti-mo- 
nopolist before  the  public.  All  his  extraordinary 
acts  as  president  of  the  Erie  were  defended  on  the 
ground  that  he  was  endeavoring  to  protect  the  sys- 
tem against  consolidation  or  afifiliation  with  other 
trunk  lines,  and  there  were  some  honorable  persons 
who  really  put  faith  in  this  statement.  "Gould," 
said  Mr,  Adams,  "posed  as  a  public  benefactor,  with 
unspeakable  effrontery." 

There  was  more  fighting  in  the  courts  over  Erie. 
Justice  Sutherland  vacated  Barnard's  order  making 
Gould  receiver,  and  Noah  Davis  was  made  receiver, 
Barnard  stayed  Sutherland,  and  Sutherland  granted 
a  motion  to  show  cause  why  Barnard's  stay  should 
not  be  vacated,  Gould  and  Fisk  sued  August  Bel- 
mont for  $1,000,000  damages,  and  Frank  Work  and 
Richard  Schell  for  $429,250,  paid  to  them  at  the 
time  of  the  settlement  with  Vanderbilt,  Gould  and 
Fisk  even  went  to  the  United  States  District  Court, 
and  on  a  petition  of  one  of  Gould's  clerks,  Henry  D, 
Whelpley,  a  stockholder,  Judge  Blatchford  ap- 
pointed Gould  receiver,  and  directed  the  Erie  com- 
pany to  place  $8,000,000  in  his  hands  to  protect  the 
rights  of  the  plaintiff,  Whelpley,  who  protested  that 
he  had  been  injured  by  certain  issues  of  stock. 

The  marvelous  business  acumen  displayed  by 
the  manipulators  of  these  properties  was  aided  by 
the  blind  zeal  of  certain  foreign  investors  for  Ameri- 


Gould's  victory  and  final  defeat. 


77 


can  securities  then  as  prevalent  as  now.  The  won- 
derful financial  operations  of  the  Drew  and  Gould 
regimes  in  Erie  could  not  have  been  possible  but 
for  the  extraordinary  fascination  which  the  stock 
poscessed  for  English  capitalists.  While  Americans 
looked  with  more  than  suspicion  on  the  Erie  securi- 
ties, England  was  possessed  of  an  irresistible  craze 
to  get  as  many  of  them  as  possible.  English  capi- 
talists would  not  take  the  United  States  bond  even 
when  selling  below  par,  but  they  bought  with  avid- 
ity every  share  of  Erie  they  could  get  hold  of.  At 
last,  however,  the  eyes  of  the  English  stockholders 
were  opened  to  the  true  condition  of  affairs,  and 
under  the  lead  of  James  McHenry  they  organized 
to  get  the  control  of  the  property.  At  this  time 
Gen.  Daniel  E.  Sickles,  one  of  the  heroes  of  Gettys- 
burg, was  Minister  to  Spain.  He  was  engaged  to 
lead  the  anti-Gould  forces  against  the  Erie  strong- 
holds. He  did  his  work  well,  and  it  is  said  was 
paid  a  very  big  fee  for  his  labors.  He  obtained  a 
leave  of  absence  from  Madrid  and  returnd  home  to 
conduct  the  operations  in  person  on  the  ground. 
This  was  the  last  of  the  Erie  wars. 

It  should  be  recorded  at  this  time,  however,  that 
the  famous  partnership  of  Gould  and  Fisk  had  been 
dissolved  by  death.  Fisk,  late  in  1871,  had  been  shot 
by  Edward  F.  Stokes,  and  after  a  few  days  had  died 
from  the  wound.  He  and  Stokes  had  at  one  time 
been  friends  but  had  quarreled  over  business  mat- 
ters and  about  a  woman — the  beautiful,  but  noto- 
rious Josie  Mansfield — and  the  quarrel  led  to  the 


78        Gould's  victory  and  final  defeat. 


murdeir.  It  will  surprise  no  one  who  has  read  this 
history  thus  far  that  in  the  course  of  the  Erie  litiga- 
tions a  Supreme  Court  judge  once  held  court  and 
issued  orders  from  Josie  Mansfield's  apartments. 
Stokes  was  tried  three  times.  Once  the  jury  dis- 
agreed. Once  he  was  convicted  of  murder  in  the 
first  degree  and  sentenced  to  be  hanged  by  Judge 
Noah  Davis.  This  verdict  being  overruled  by  the 
Court  of  Appeals,  he  was  tried  again  and  convicted 
of  manslaughter  in  the  third  degree.  After  serving 
a  few  years  in  Auburn  prison  Mr.  Stokes  returned  to 
New  York,  where  he  soon  became  a  prosperous 
business  man,  intimate  for  a  long  time  with  John  A. 
Mackay,  the  California  millionaire,  and  president  of  a 
telegraph  system  competing  with  Gould's  Western 
Union. 

Before  his  death  the  belief  is  that  Gould  and 
Fisk  had  substantially  parted  company.  The  New 
York  World  of  that  day  gives  an  account  of  an  inter- 
view between  Gould  and  Fisk,  in  which  the  former 
asked  Fisk  for  his  resignation  as  vice-president  and 
comptroller  of  Erie.  Fisk  is  represented  as  saying 
to  a  friend  who  was  about  to  leave  for  Europe:  "I 
would  like  you  to  do  me  a  favor.  If  you  find  in 
Europe  a  mean  man  who  can  do  a  meaner  thing  to 
his  best  friend  or  tell  a  bigger  lie  than  Jay  Gould,  I 
want  you  to  telegraph  me  at  once."  After  Fisk's 
death,  however,  Gould  acted  handsomely  by  his 
widow.  Whatever  else  may  be  said  of  Fisk,  he  was 
certainly  a  more  popular  man  than  Gould,  and  after 
the  former's  death  Gould  did  not  long  remain  at  the 


GOULD  S  VICTORY  AND  FINAL  DEFEAT. 


79 


head  of  Erie.  "The  feeling  against  Gould,"  said 
Gen.  Barlow,  at  the  time  of  the  anti-Gould  revo- 
lution, "grew  in  great  part  since  Fisk's  death.  Fisk 
was  always  popular  with  the  people  of  the  road  and 
in  the  office.  Had  he  been  alive  we  should  have 
had  more  trouble,  or  perhaps  the  move  would  never 
have  been  made." 

Besides   Barlow,  Gen.  Sickles  had   other  effi- 
cient aid,  and  the  anti-Gould  movement  was  strength 
ened  by  such  names  as  Gen.  John  A.  Dix,  who  in 
the  same  year  was  elected  governor  of  New  York, 
Gen.  George  B.  McClellan  and  William  R.  Travers. 

In  March,  1872,  the  blow  was  struck.  A  man 
named  Archer  had  been  elected  vice-president  in 
place  of  Fisk,  and  with  his  aid  the  revolution  was 
accomplished.  Gould  had  made  him  vice-president 
with  the  view  of  conciliating  the  opposition.  Nine 
members  of  the  Board  of  Directors  had  been  won 
over  to  the  opposition.  These  wrote  to  Gould,  ask- 
ing him  to  call  a  meeting  of  the  board.  As  Gould 
did  not  respond,  Vice-President  Archer  called  the 
meeting.  The  revolutionists  assembled  at  Barlow's 
house  and  prepared  to  carry  the  Grand  Opera  House 
by  storm.  Gould  had  this  barricaded  by  his  men, 
with  instructions  to  permit  no  one  to  pass  in.  But 
the  revolutionists  succeeded  in  passing  the  picket 
line  and  passed  in,  and  Mr.  Archer  called  the  meet- 
ing to  order.  Then  ensued  an  extraordinary  scene 
which  lasted  all  night.  Gould  ordered  the  "con- 
spirators," as  he  called  them,  to  leave  the  building. 
They  refused.   Gould  at  this  time  had  the  benefit  of 


8o        Gould's  victory  and  final  defeat. 


the  legal  advice  of  David  Dudley  Field  and  Thomas 
G.  Shearman.  Mr.  Field  was  long  one  of  the  lead- 
ers of  the  New  Vork  bar.  One  of  his  brothers  sat 
on  the  Supreme  Court  bench  of  the  United  States, 
and  the  other,  Cyrus  W.  Field,  was  the  father  of  the 
Atlantic  cable,  and  soon  one  of  the  closest  of 
Gould's  business  associates.  Mr.  Shearman,  who 
afterward  became  famous  in  the  defense  of  Henry 
Ward  Beecher,  had  before  this  time  published  an 
article  on  the  corruption  of  the  New  York  judiciary, 
which  attracted  widespread  attention,  but  he  was 
now  counsel  to  a  man  who  owned  two  or  three  Su- 
preme Court  judges  and  a  few  months  later  publicly 
admitted  the  distribution  of  a  corruption  fund. 

Space  will  not  permit  the  telling  of  all  the  inci- 
dents of  that  night.  Shearman  appeared  with  forty 
policemen  and  ordered  the  revolutionists  to  leave, 
but  they  shut  themselves  up  in  their  rooms  and  re- 
fused to  do  so.  Gould  obtained  from  Judge  Ingra- 
ham  a  temporary  injunction  to  restrain  Archer  and 
the  other  directors  from  acting,  but  they  calmly 
proceeded  to  elect  new  officers  and  directors.  Field 
and  Shearman  declared  that  Gould's  legal  position 
was  absolutely  perfect,  but  notwithstanding  this  he 
was  finally  obliged  to  give  in.  The  opposition 
elected  Gen  Dix  as  president  and  Gen.  McClellan 
as  one  of  the  directors. 

The  World  of  March  ii,  1872,  thus  describes  this 
memorable  night: 

"The  scene  at  the  Grand  Opera  House  was  one 
to  be  remembered.    Gould  and  Eldridge,  with  their 


Gould's  victory  and  final  defeat.  8l 


counsel,  in  one  room  and  the  newly  chosen  directors 
in  another,  the  doors  of  both  rooms  barred,  opening 
to  no  one  but  an  avowed  friend,  each  fearful  of  or- 
ders of  arrests  being  served  on  them,  every  spare 
room  in  the  offices  filled  with  blue-coated  officers  of 
the  peace,  sitting  in  all  the  chairs  and  on  all  the 
tables  and  lying  on  the  floors,  and  an  intense  sense 
of  subdued  excitement  pervading  the  heavy  air  of 
the  place. 

The  only  communication  between  the  two  hostile 
parties  was  by  means  of  Peter  B.  Sweeney,  who 
acted  as  go-between. 

Finding  that  he  was  defeated,  Gould  then  re- 
sorted to  one  of  those  acts  of  audacity  with  which 
at  different  periods  in  his  career  he  has  surprised 
the  public.  In  a  public  letter  he  offered  to  leave  all 
the  questions  in  dispute  to  arbitration  by  Horace 
Greeley.  Thus  he  attempted  to  place  himself  in 
favorable  light  before  the  public.  But  it  should  not 
be  supposed  that  Greeley  was  in  any  sense  a  friend 
of  Gould.  On  the  contrary,  the  Tribune  of  that  day 
show^s  how  severely  he  criticised  Gould. 

The  battle  lasted  one  night  and  then  Gould  sur- 
rendered. He  remained  as  a  director  for  a  time, 
but  his  power  was  gone  and  Erie  passed  out  of  his 
hands  forever.  The  property  has  never  fully  recov- 
ered from  the  condition  into  which  it  was  thrown  by 
the  Drew-Gould  regime.  Though  one  of  the  most 
important  systems  in  the  country  and  enjoying  an 
immense  business,  it  is  crippled  with  its  enormous 
stock  and  bond  liabilities,  and  not  until  1891  did  it 


82 


Gould's  victory  and  final  defeat. 


pay  a  dividend.  For  many  years  it  remained  in  the 
hands  of  a  receiver. 

The  testimony  of  J.  W.  Guppy  before  the  Hep- 
burn Committee,  already  referred  to,  gives  some 
interesting  details  of  Gould's  management  of  the 
Erie.  Among  the  roads  which  Erie  leased  were 
the  Chemung  railroad  and  the  Canandaigua  and 
Elmira.  These  leases  were  very  profitable  to  Erie, 
but  Gould,  as  an  individual,  after  quietly  purchasing 
a  majority'of  their  capital  stocks,  as  president  ol 
Erie  refused  to  pay  the  rentals,  thus  abrogating  the 
leases.  Then  he  sold  the  roads  to  the  Northern 
Central  of  Pennsylvania  at  a  big  profit.  Gould  and 
Fisk  organized  a  number  of  auxiliary  companies 
whose  plant  was  usually  paid  for  by  Erie,  but  whose 
stock  went  into  the  pockets  of  Gould,  Fisk  and  their 
associates.  Among  these  companies  was  the  National 
Stock  Yard  Company.  The  land  was  purchased  and 
the  improvements  made  by  Erie,  but  the  stock  was 
divided  as  so  much  spoils,  800  shares  finding  their 
way  into  the  pockets  of  Judge  Barnard.  The  Erie 
Emigrant  Company,  the  Jefferson  Railroad  Company, 
the  Blackford  Company  and  the  Greenwood  Coal 
Company  were  the  names  of  some  of  the  companies 
practically  saddled  upon  Erie,  but  whose  stock  was 
issued  to  Gould  and  Fisk  without  consideration. 

August  Stein,  who  made  an  examination  into  the 
records,  told  the  Hepburn  Committee  that  the 
amount  of  Gould's  wrong-doing  in  Erie  was  about 
$12,000,000.  By  this  was  meant  the  amount  which 
he  wrongfully  appropriated. 


Gould's  victory  and  final  defeat.  83 


Mr.  Gould's  smartness  was  never  made  mere 
apparent  than  in  his  manner  of  pretending  to  restore 
the  money  which  he  had  misappropriated.  He  had 
to  make  restitution  of  this  stolen  money — "stolen" 
is  the  word  used  by  the  Hepburn  Committee.  After 
he  had  left  Erie,  the  new  management  sought  to 
ascertain  how  large  was  the  plunder  carried  away  by 
Gould.  This  information  could  be  obtained  with 
complete  accuracy  only  from  Morosini,  the  auditor 
of  the  company,  and  he  refused  to  make  up  the 
accounts,  leaving  Erie  to  join  his  fortunes  with  those 
of  Gould.  Morosini  now  became  inseparable  from 
Gould  and  a  notable  figure  in  Wall  street.  He  was 
a  tall,  athletic  Italian,  shrewd  and  faithful,  an  ideal 
private  secretary.  He  had  served  with  Garibaldi 
in  the  wars  for  Italian  liberty,  and  was  proud  of  his 
service  under  the  great  Italian  patriot.  He  had 
been  a  sailor,  too,  and  had  a  wide  experience  with 
the  world,  which,  while  not  making  him  overscrupu- 
lous in  his  methods,  made  him  invaluable  to  a  man 
like  Gould.  When  the  firm  of  W.  E.  Connor  &  Co., 
of  which  Gould  was  a  special  partner,  was  founded, 
Morosini  became  partner,  and  when  the  firm  dis- 
solved, and  Morosini  retired  from  business,  Gould 
said  that  his  private  secretary  was  worth  $2,000,000 
or  $3,000,000. 

A  way  was  opened,  however,  by  which  the  new 
Erie  management  gained  some  proof  of  Gould's 
wrong-doing.  Gould,  in  company  with  Horace  F. 
Clark,  had  engineered  a  corner  in  Northwestern 
stock,  one  of  the  most  famous  and  successful  cor- 

6 


84        Gould's  victory  and  final  defeat. 


ners  in  Wall  street  history.  In  after  years,  Gould 
gave  a  unique  account  of  this  corner  to  a  legislative 
committee  which  was  investigating  corners.  "I  was 
interested,"  said  Mr.  Gould,  with  that  charming 
frankness  which  he  sometimes  assumed,  "in  the  Chi- 
cago &  Northwestern  corner.  The  stock  was  selling 
at  seventy  to  eighty.  I  considered  it  very  cheap," 
so  he  bought.  He  soon  had  bought  a  great  deal 
more  than  there  really  was  to  deliver,  and  the  shorts 
were  cornered.  The  price  went  up  to  ^250.  **I  was 
induced,"  said  Mr.  Gould,  with  most  exquisite 
humor,  "to  part  with  some  at  that  price." 

Among  the  shorts  caught  in  this  famous  corner 
was  Henry  N.  Smith,  who  only  a  short  time  before 
had  been  Gould's  partner  in  the  firm  of  Smith,  Gould 
&  Martin,  and  who  had  supported  Gould  in  his  great 
conspiracy  to  corner  gold.  Smith  is  another  noted 
Wall  street  character,  whose  life  is  linked  in  that  of 
Gould.  He  was  something  of  an  "exquisite,"  and 
had  the  reputation  of  wearing  corsets,  but  he  was 
for  many  years  remarkably  successful  in  Wall  street. 
After  renewing  his  relations  with  Gould  he  became 
chiefly  distinguished  as  one  of  the  bear  leaders,  and 
was  thus  continually  in  antagonism  with  Gould. 
Woerlshoffer,  Cammack  and  Smith  were  a  trio  that 
once  nearly  drove  Gould  to  the.wall,  but  the  latter 
lived  to  see  one  dead,  the  second  his  associate  in 
certain  speculations,  and  the  third  involved  in  irre- 
trievable bankruptcy. 

It  was  not  in  the  Northwest  corner  that  Smith 
was  ruined,  but  in  it  he  lost  a  very  large  sum,  which 


Gould's  victory  and  final  defeat.  85 


found  its  way  into  Gould's  pockets.  Smith  was  not 
slow  in  getting  his  revenge.  The  books  of  the  late 
firm  of  Smith,  Gould  &  Martin  were  in  his  posses- 
sion, and  he  handed  them  over  to  Mr.  Barlow,  of  the 
Erie,  who  quickly  discovered  in  them  the  evidence 
on  which  to  obtain  an  order  of  arrest  for  Gould 
and  to  establish  a  suit  for  the  recovery  of  Si 2,803, - 
059,  the  proceeds  of  bonds  converted  into  stock  to 
the  extent  of  407,347  shares,  which  were  sold  by 
Mr.  Gould's  firm  and  the  proceeds  transferred  to 
his  pocket.  That  was  the  charge,  and  Gould  was 
arrested  and  placed  under  very  heavy  bonds,  which 
he  furnished.  Here  Mr.  Gould's  genius  displayed 
itself.  He  actually  entered  into  a  big  speculation 
based  on  his  restitution  of  this  plunder.  Gen.  Dix, 
it  should  be  recorded,  remained  as  president  of  Erie 
for  only  a  few  months,  and  was  succeeded  by  Presi- 
dent Watson,  a  man-  who  owed  his  position  mainly  to 
Horace  F.  Clark,  who,  as  has  been  seen,  was  in  inti- 
mate business  relations  with  Gould.  Clark  under- 
took to  arrange  a  compromise  between  Watson  and 
Gould,  and  all  three  evidently  united  to  "rig"  the 
stock  market  by  the  operation.  One  day  it  was  re- 
ported that  Gould  intended  to  restore  his  plunder, 
and  the  price  of  Erie  advanced  with  a  bound.  A 
day  or  two  later  a  denial  of  the  report  would  come, 
and  down  would  go  the  price.  This  was  repeated 
two  or  three  times  and  Gould,  of  course,  bought  at 
the  low  figures  and  sold  at  the  top,  and  the  profits 
must  have  been  big.  Finally  the  restitution,  so- 
called,  was  announced  with  a  flourish  of  trumpets. 


86 


Gould's  victory  and  final  defeat. 


On  the  face  of  the  agreement  Gould  made  over  to 
Erie  an  immense  amount  of  property  and  all  suits 
were  withdrawn  and  Gould  released  from  all  criminal 
responsibility.  A  clause  in  the  agreement  said  that 
in  making  this  transfer  of  property  Gould  expressly 
stipulated  that  it  should  not  be  considered  as  an  ad- 
mission of  wrong-doing.  The  Opera  House  and 
adjoining  buildings  and  other  real  estate,  with  the 
exception  of  Gould's  Fifth  avenue  mansion,  were 
made  over  to  the  Erie,  and,  in  addition,  a  mass  of 
stocks  of  the  par  value  of  about  $6,000,000.  As  a 
matter  of  fact  most  of  these  stocks  were  worthless. 
J.  G.  Guppy  told  the  Hepburn  Committee  that  he 
would  not  give  $200,000  for  the  entire  lot.  Among 
the  securities  were  $1,000,000  of  United  States 
Express  stock  to  be  issued,  and  which  Gould  guar- 
anteed to  be  issued,  but  which,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
never  was.  When  Hugh  J.  Jevvett  became  receiver 
of  Erie  he  discovered  the  utter  sham  of  this  alleged 
restitution.  He  told  the  Hepburn  Committee: 
"Mr.  Watson  had  made  a  settlement  with  Mr.  Gould, 
in  which  he  received  in  liquidation  of  this  account, 
or  such  portion  of  it  as  he  supposed  he  could  recover, 
certain  assets.  When  I  came  here  I  sought  to  realize 
on  these  assets.  I  found  many  of  them  totally 
worthless,  and  some  which  were  of  value  were  encum- 
bered by  existing  liens." 

By  the  closing  of  these  transactions  Mr.  Gould 
was  entirely  freed  from  all  connection  with  Erie  and 
was  enabled  to  seek  new  fields  for  cultivation.  It 
had  been  a  few  years  before,  during  the  Erie  troubles, 


Gould's  victory  and  final  defeat.  87 

that  Gould  and  his  coadjutors  originated  the  scheme 
for  cornering  gold,  which  consummated  on  the  day 
which  is  now  remembered  as  "Black  Friday,"  the 
other  most  disgraceful  of  the  conspiracies  of  his 
life. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


THE  GOLD  CONSPIRACY. 

^  ^  O  LACK  Friday,"  that  darkest  day  in  the  finan- 
L)  cial  history  of  America,  was  not  the  creation 
of  sudden  circumstance,  but  the  culmination  of  a  plan 
conceived  by  Gould  and  his  associates,  with  all  its 
details  arranged  for  weeks  before.  Whether  the 
whole  truth  has  ever  been  written  about  Mr.  Gould's 
gold  operations  is  open  to  doubt.  The  explanation 
given  by  Henry  Clews,  in  his  noted  work,  "Twenty- 
eight  years  in  Wall  Street,"  seems  a' trifle  naive 
to  those  who  are  not  so  deeply  initiated  in  Wall 
street  methods.    He  says: 

"In  the  year  1869,  this  country  was  blest  with 
abundant  crops  far  in  excess  of  our  needs,  and  it  was 
apparent  that  great  good  would  result  from  any 
method  that  could  be  devised  to  stimulate  exports 
of  a  part,  at  least,  of  the  surplus. 

"Letters  poured  into  Washington  by  the  thou- 
sand from  leading  bankers,  merchants  and  business 
men,  urging  that  the  Treasury  department  abstain 
from  selling  gold,  as  had  been  the  practice  for  some 
time,  so  that  the  premium  might,  as  it  otherwise 
would  not,  advance  to  a  figure  that  would  send  our 
products  out  of  the  country,  as  the  cheapest  exporta- 
ble material  in  place  of  coin,  which,  at  its  then  arti- 

88 


The  Men  of  Black  Friday. 
l.-jAY  Gould.  2.— Jim  Fisk,  Jr.   3.— Daniel  Drew. 

MonORE  \  ANDERBILT.     5.— PeTER  B.  SwEEXV.     6.— E.  K.  StOKES. 


THE  GOLD  CONSPIRACY. 


89 


ficially  depressed  price,  was  the  cheapest  of  our 
products,  and  at  the  same  time  the  only  one  undesira- 
ble to  part  with.  So  the  government  decided  to 
suspend  gold  sales  indefinitely. 

"Jay  Gould  and  others,  being  satisfied  that  this 
was  to  be  the  policy  of  the  administration,  com- 
menced at  once  buying  large  amounts  of  gold, 
actuated,  doubtless,  by  the  purest  of  patriotic  mo- 
tives, namely,  to  stimulate  cotton  and  cereal  exports. 
They  succeeded  in  accumulating  a  considerable 
amount  of  gold  at  prices  ranging  from  135  to  140, 
covering  a  period  of  three  months'  steady  buying. 

"This  was  the  honest  foundation  on  which  the 
great  'Black  Friday'  speculative  deal  was  erected. 

"The  eruption  on  'Black  Friday' was  really  caused 
by  the  erratic  conduct  of  James  Fisk,  Jr.,  who 
actively  joined  the  movement  on  Thursday,  the  day 
before,  and  became  wild  with  enthusiasm  on  the 
subject  of  high  gold." 

The  "Black  Friday"  scheme  was  the  most  gigan- 
tic one  that  Wall  street  had  ever  seen.  This  gold 
conspiracy  was  investigated  in  1870  by  a  committee 
of  Congress,  of  which  James  A.  Garfield,  afterward 
President,  was  chairman,  and  S.  S.  Cox,  a  member. 
The  investigation  undertaken  went  far  enough  to 
show  how  zealously  the  conspirators  labored  to  get 
Grant  within  their  toils  and  implicated  persons  near 
to  him.  Unfortunately,  too,  the  President  had  inno- 
cently enough  permitted  himself  to  be  put  in  a  sus- 
picious position,  and  it  was  long  before  he  was 
completely  purged  of  the  scandal. 


90 


THE  GOLD  CONSPIRACV. 


The  report  of  the  committee,  with  the  accompa- 
nying testimony,  is  absorbingly  interesting: 

"Gould,  the  guilty  plotter  of  all  these  criminal 
proceedings,"  is  the  language  of  James  A.  Garfield, 
the  author  of  this  report. 

Gould  some  years  before  had  formed  a  co-part- 
nership with  H.  N.  Smith  and  others  under  the  name 
of  Smith,  Gould,  Martin  &  Co.  "He  was  a  broker," 
says  Henry  Adams  in  his  history  of  the  gold  con- 
spiracy, "and  a  broker  is  almost  by  nature  a  gamb- 
ler, perhaps  the  very  last  profession  suitable  for  a 
railway  manager.  In  character  he  was  strongly 
marked  by  his  disposition  for  silent  intrigue.  He 
preferred,  as  a  rule,  to  operate  on  his  own  account 
without  admitting  other  persons  into  his  confidence, 
and  he  seemed  never  to  be  satisfied  except  when 
deceiving  every  one  as  to  his  intentions.  There  was 
a  reminiscence  of  the  spider  in  his  nature.  He  spun 
huge  webs  in  corners  and  in  the  dark,  which  were 
seldom  strong  enough  to  resist  a  serious  strain  at  the 
critical  moment.  His  disposition  to  this  subtlety 
and  elaboration  of  intrigue  was  irresistible.  It  is 
scarcely  necessary  to  say  that  he  had  not  a  concep- 
tion of  a  moral  principle.  In  speaking  of  this  class 
of  men,  it  must  be  fairly  assumed  at  the  outset  that 
they  do  not,  and  can  not,  understand  how  there  can 
be  a  distinction  between  right  and  wrong  in  matters 
of  speculation,  so  long  as  the  daily  settlements  are 
punctually  effected.  In  this  respect,  Mr.  Gould  was 
probably  as  honest  as  the  mass  of  his  fellows,  accord- 
ing to  the  moral  standard  of  the  street;  but  without 


THE  GOLD  CONSPIRACY. 


91 


entering  upon  technical  questions  of  roguery,  it  is 
enough  to  say  that  he  was  an  uncommonly  fine  and 
unscrupulous  intriguer,  skilled  in  all  the  processes  of 
stock  gambling,  and  indifferent  to  the  praise  or  cen- 
sure of  society." 

It  was  one  of  Mr.  Gould's  peculiarities  that  he 
rarely  entered  into  any  large  speculation  without 
furnishing  the  public  with  a  plausible  reason  for 
assisting  him  in  his  operations.  This  was  certainly 
the  case  in  the  gold  conspiracy.  The  plausible 
reason  was  in  this  case  suggested  to  Mr.  Gould  by 
James  McHenry,  who  was  then  training  with  Mr. 
Gould  in  Erie.  The  latter  spared  no  pains  to  dress 
the  reason  up  in  the  best  shape  and  give  it  to  the 
public.  Mr.  Gould  argued  with  much  apparent 
force,  but  actual  sophistry,  that  an  advance  in  the 
price  of  gold  would  benefit  the  Western  farmers  in 
giving  them  a  bigger  price  for  their  grain,  and  Mr. 
Gould  backed  up  this  theory  with  many  facts  and 
figures.  Gen.  Grant  had  just  become  President. 
His  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  was  George  F.  Bout- 
well.  The  key  to  the  situation  was  the  financial 
.policy  of  the  government.  No  successful  corner  in 
gold  could  be  established  if  the  Treasury  should  sell 
gold  with  a  liberal  hand.  It  should  be  explained 
that  the  war  had  caused  a  lively  speculation  in  gold, 
which  continued  after  the  war  until  the  resumption 
of  specie  payments  made  the  greenbacks  equal  in 
value  to  gold.  Speculation  in  gold  was  carried  on 
in  the  gold-room,  an  institution  separate  from  the 
Stock  Exchange. 


92 


THE  GOLD  CONSPIRACY. 


It  became  essential  to  the  success  of  Mr.  Gould's 
plans  that  the  Grant  administration  should  either 
become  a  party  to  the  speculation  or  else  an  honest 
believer  in  his  crop  theory.  Failing  in  both  of  these, 
the  public  must  at  least  be  impressed  with  the  idea 
that  the  administration  was  in  the  deal  whether  it 
was  or  not.  So  Gould  began  to  lay  systematic  siege 
around  the  administration.  He  seems  to  have 
entered  alone  into  this  speculation.  It  was  only 
when  he  was  unable  to  carry  the  burden  alone  that 
he  took  in  others,  and  it  was  not  until  late  in  the 
game  that  Fisk  entered,  Gould  found  a  brother-in- 
law  of  President  Grant  a  convenient  tool  in  his 
operations.  The  name  of  this  brother-in-law  was 
A.  R.  Corbin,  who  had  been  something  of  an  adven- 
turer all  his  life,  and  whose  chief  hold  on  respect- 
ability was  his  relationship  to  the  President.  Gould 
unfolded  enough  of  his  plans  to  Corbin  to  enlist  him 
in  his  service  and  to  bind  him  by  interest  to  the 
speculation.  Gould  bought  for  Corbin  $1,500,000  of 
gold,  and  promised  him  that  all  the  profits  should 
be  turned  over  to  him.  Every  rise  of  one  per  cent, 
in  the  price  of  gold  made  Corbin  $15,000  richer. 
Corbin  claimed  to  have  great  influence  with  the 
President,  and  Gould  evidently  placed  much  reliance 
in  him.  "I  am  right  behind  the  throne,"  said  Cor- 
bin to  Gould  at  one  stage  of  the  proceedings. 
"Give  yourself  no  uneasiness.    All  is  right." 

Mr.  Henry  Adams,  in  his  celebrated  chapter,  "The 
New  York  Gold  Conspiracy,"  makes  the  following 
interesting  explanation  of  circumstances  preliminary 


THE  GOLD  CONSPIRACY. 


93 


to  "Black  Friday:"  "In  order  to  explain  the  oper- 
ation of  a  so-called  corner  in  gold  to  ordinary 
readers  with  the  least  possible  use  of  slang  or  tech- 
nical phrases,  two  preliminary  statements  are  neces- 
sary. In  the  first  place,  it  must  be  understood  that 
the  supply  of  gold  immediately  available  for  trans- 
fers is  limited  within  distinct  bonds  in  America. 
New  York  and  the  country  behind  it  contain  an 
amount  usually  estimated  at  about  $20,000,000.  The 
national  government  commonly  holds  from  $75,000,- 
000  to  $100,000,000,  which  may  be  thrown  bodily  on 
the  market  if  the  President  orders  it.  To  obtain 
gold  from  Europe,  or  other  sources,  requires  time. 

"In  the  second  place,  gold  in  America  is  a  com- 
modity bought  and  sold  like  stocks.  Ln  gold,  as  in 
stocks,  the  transactions  are  both  real  and  specula- 
tive. The  real  transactions  are  mostly  purchases  or 
loans  made  by  importers  who  require  coin  to  pay 
custom  on  their  imports.  The  speculative  transac- 
tions are  mere  wagers  on  the  rise  or  fall  of  price, 
and  neither  require  any  actual  transfer  of  gold,  or 
even  imply  its  existence,  although  in  times  of  ex- 
citement hundreds  of  millions  nominally  are  bought, 
sold  and  loaned. 

"Under  the  late  administration,  Mr.  McCulloch, 
then  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  had  thought  it  his 
duty  at  least  to  guarantee  a  stable  currency,  al- 
though Congress  forbade  him  to  restore  the  gold 
standard.  During  four  years  gold  had  fluctuated 
little  and  principally  from  natural  causes,  and  the 
danger  of  attempting  to  create  an  artificial  scarcity 


94 


THE  GOLD  CONSPIRACY. 


in  it  had  prevented  the  operators  from  trying  an 
experiment  which  would  have  been  sure  to  irritate 
the  government.  The  financial  policy  of  the  new 
administration  was  not  so  definitely  fixed,  and  the' 
success  of  the  speculation  would  depend  on  the 
action  of  Mr.  Boutwell,  the  new  secretary,  whose 
direction  was  understood  to  have  begun  by  a  marked 
censure  on  the  course  pursued  by  his  predecessor. 

"Of  all  financial  operations,  cornering  gold  is  the 
most  brilliant  and  the  most  dangerous,  and  possibly 
the  very  hazard  and  splendor  of  the  attempt  were 
the  reasons  of  its  fascination  to  Mr.  Jay  Gould's 
fancy.  He  dwelt  upon  it  for  months  and  played 
with  it  like  a  pet  toy.  His  fertile  mind  even  went 
so  far  as  to  discover  that  it  would  prove  a  blessing 
to  the  community,  and  on  this  ingenious  theory, 
half  honest  and  half  fraudulent,  he  stretched  the 
widely  extended  fabric  of  the  web  in  which  all  man- 
kind  was  to  be  caught.  This  theory  was  in  itself 
partially  sound.  Starting  from  the  principle  that 
the  price  of  grain  in  New  York  is  regulated  by  the 
price  in  London,  and  is  not  effected  by  currency 
fluctuations,  Mr.  Gould  argued  that  if  it  were  possi- 
ble to  raise  the  premium  on  gold  from  30  to  40 
cents  at  harvest  time,  the  farmer's  grain  would  be 
worth  ^1.40  instead  of  $1.30,  and  as  a  consequence 
the  farmer  would  hasten  to  send  all  his  crop  to  New 
York  for  export  over  the  Erie  railway,  which  was 
sorely  in  need  of  freight.  With  the  assistance  of 
another  gentleman,  Mr.  Gould  calculated  the  exact 
premium  at  which  the  western  farmer  would  consent 


THE  GOLD  CONSPIRACY. 


95 


to  dispose  of  his  grain,  and  thus  distance  the  three 
hundred  sail  which  were  hastening  from  the  Danube 
to  supply  the  English  market.  Gold,  which  was 
then  heavy  at  34,  must  be  raised  to  45. 

"This  clever  idea,  like  all  the  other  ideas  of  these 
gentlemen  of  Erie,  seems  to  have  had  the  single 
fault  of  requiring  that  some  one  somewhere  should 
be  swindled.  The  scheme  was  probably  feasible; 
but  sooner  or  later  the  reaction  from  such  an  arti- 
ficial stimulant  must  have  come,  and  whenever  it 
came,  some  one  must  suffer.  Nevertheless,  Mr. 
Gould  probably  argued  that  so  long  as  the  farmer 
got  his  money,  the  Erie  railway  its  freights,  and  he 
himself  his  small  profits  on  the  gold  he  bought,  it 
w^as  of  little  consequence  who  else  might  be  injured; 
'and  indeed  by  the  time  the  reaction  came,  and  gold 
was  ready  to  fall  as  he  expected,  Mr.  Gould  would 
probably  have  been  ready  to  assist  the  process  by 
speculative  sales  in  order  to  enable  the  Western 
farmer  to  buy  his  spring  goods  cheap,  as  he  had 
sold  his  autumn  crops  dear.  He  himself  was  equally 
ready  to  buy  gold  cheap  and  sell  it  dear  on  his  priv- 
ate account,  and  as  he  proposed  to  bleed  New  York 
merchants  for  the  benefit  of  the  Western  farmer,  so 
he  was  willing  to  bleed  Broad  street  for  his  own. 
The  patriotic  object  was,  however,  the  one  which, 
for  obvious  reasons,  Mr.  Gould  preferred  to  put  for- 
ward most  prominently  and  on  the  strength  of  which 
he  hoped  to  rest  his  ambitious  structure  of  intrigue." 

Here  is  the  story  in  brief:  In  March,  1869,  the 
price  of  gold  touched  130^,  which  was  the  lowest 


96 


THE  GOLD  CONSPIRACY. 


figure  that  it  had  reached  in  three  years.  Jay  Gould, 
as  president  of  the  Erie  railway  and  the  principal 
owner  of  the  Tenth  National  Bank,  had  the  com- 
mand of  large  sums  of  money.  He  proposed  to  Fisk 
that  they  take  advantage  of  the  low  price  of  gold 
and  *'corner"  it.  Fisk  did  not  think  the  scheme 
practicable,  and  declined  at  first  to  go  in.  Subse- 
quently he  reconsidered  his  determination  and  joined 
in  the  undertaking  zealously.  Gould  bought  ^7,000,- 
000  of  gold  at  132  and  put  up  the  price  to  140.  He 
induced  other  brokers  to  buy  heavily,  and  within  a 
few  days  gold  advanced  to  144.  It  soon  dropped 
back  to  136.  The  element  of  uncertainty  in  Mr. 
Gould's  plan  was  the  policy  of  the  government  with 
reference  to  gold  sales.  Should  the  government  at 
any  time  release  some  of  the  millions  stored  in  the 
Sub-Treasury  here,  no  "corner"  could  be  successful. 

The  first  step  in  the  conspiracy  after  the  bribing 
of  Corbin  and  the  purchase  of  a  large  quantity  of 
gold  was  to  secure  the  appointment  of  the  right  sort 
of  man  as  Assistant  Treasurer  at  New  York.  Though 
nominally  a  subordinate  officer  and  having  no  origi- 
nal authority,  the  assistant  treasurer  draws  the  salary 
of  a  cabinet  officer,  and  his  influence  is  large. 
Corbin  undertook  this  part  of  the  scheme  and 
secured  the  appointment  of  Gen.  Butterworth, 
who  seemed  to  give  great  satisfaction  to  Gould. 
Butterworth  was  afterward  exonerated  by  Congress 
of  all  guilty  connection  with  the  gold  conspiracy, 
but  Gould  purchased  for  his  account  ^1,000,000  of 
gold.    But  then  Gould  also  had  the  effrontery  at 


THE  GOLD  CONSPIRACY. 


97 


one  stage  of  the  negotiations  to  buy  $500,000  of  gold 
for  Gen.  Porter,  the  President's  private  secretary, 
which  that  gentleman  promptly  declined.  It  was 
said,  also,  that  $500,000  was  purchased  in  the  name 
of  Mrs.  Grant,  but  she  never  received  any  of  the 
profits  and  had  no  connection  with  the  conspiracy. 

Butterworth  secured,  it  was  necessary  to  make 
an  impression  on  the  President.  Says  Mr.  Adams: 
"On  the  15th  of  June,  1869,  the  President  came 
to  New  York,  and  was  there  the  guest  of  Mr.  Corbin, 
who  urged  Mr.  Gould  to  call  and  pay  his  respects  to 
the  chief  magistrate.  Mr.  Gould  had  probably 
aimed  at  precisely  this  result.  He  called,  and  the 
President  of  the  United  States  not  only  listened  to 
the  president  of  Erie,  but  accepted  an  invitation  to 
Mr.  Fisk's  theatre,  sat  in  Mr.  Fisk's  private  box, 
and  the  next  evening  became  the  guest  of  these 
two  gentlemen  on  their  magnificent  Newport 
steamer." 

The  President  was  to  be  sounded  in  regard  to  his 
financial  policy  on  the  occasion  of  this  memorable 
trip  to  Boston,  and  when  the  selected  guests  sat 
down  at  nine  o'clock  to  supper  the  conversation  was 
directed  to  the  subject  of  finance.  ''Some  one,"  says 
Mr.  Gould,  "  asked  the  President  what  his  view  was." 
The  "some  one"  in  question  was,  of  course,  Mr. 
Fisk,  who  alone  had  the  impudence  to  put  such  an 
inquiry.  The  President  bluntly  replied  that  there 
was  a  certain  amount  of  fictitiousness  about  the 
prosperity  of  the  country,  and  that  the  bubble  might 
as  well  be  tapped  in  one  way  as  another.  The 


98 


THE  GOLD  CONSPIRACY. 


remark  was  fatal  to  Mr.  Gould's  plans  and  he  felt  it, 
in  his  own  words,  "as  a  wet  blanket." 

Mr.  Fisk,  in  his  testimony,  frankly  said: 

"On  our  passage  over  to  Boston  with  Gen. 
Grant  we  endeavored  to  ascertain  what  his  position 
in  regard  to  finances  was.  We  went  down  to  dinner 
about  nine  o'clock,  intending,  while  we  were  there, 
to  have  this  thing  pretty  thoroughly  talked  up,  and, 
if  possible,  to  relieve  him  from  any  idea  of  putting 
the  price  of  gold  down." 

Mr.  Gould  in  his  testimony  said  of  the  President: 
"He  was  our  guest.  At  this  supper  the  question 
came  up  about  the  state  of  the  country,  the  crops, 
and  the  prospects  ahead.  The  President  was  a 
listener;  the  other  gentlemen  were  discussing.  Some 
were  in  favor  of  Boutwell's  selling  gold,  and  some 
were  opposed  to  it.  After  they  had  all  inter- 
changed their  views,  some  one  asked  the  President 
what  his  view  was.  He  remarked  that  he  thought 
there  was  a  certain  amount  of  fictitiousness  about 
the  prosperity  of  the  country,  and  that  the  bubble 
might  as  well  be  tapped  in  one  way  as  another. 
That  was  about  the  substance  of  his  remark.  He 
then  asked  me  w^hat  I  thought  about  it.  I  remarked 
that  I  thought  if  that  policy  was  carried  out  it  would 
produce  great  distress,  and  almost  lead  to  civil  war." 

However,  Gould  was  already  in,  and  he  was  not 
a  man  to  back  out  as  long  as  he  saw  any  chance  for 
success,  and  he  finally  succeeded  in  really  impress- 
ing on  the  President's  mind  that  in  order  to  move 
the  crops  it  was  necessary  that  gold  should  sell  at 


THE  GOLD  CONSPIRACY. 


99 


145.  Gould's  first  purchases  had  been  made  as  low 
as  130^,  which  was  about  the  normal  price. 

But  it  should  be  said  at  the  outset  that  there  is 
not  a  particle  of  evidence  that  Gen.  Grant  was  ever 
personally  concerned  in  the  speculation  or  that  he 
winked  at'  members  of  his  of^cial  household  being 
so.  On  the  contrary,  the  evidence  is  all  the  other 
way.  Grant  never  seemed  to  like  Gould.  When 
the  latter  succeeded  in  getting  his  first  interview 
with  the  President,  Gen.  Grant  reprimanded  his 
servant  for  allowing  him  so  easy  an  access  to  his 
person,  and  at  a  later  day  the  President  remarked 
to  his  Secretary  that  he  did  not  like  to  have  that 
man — referring  to  Gould — around  so  much.  "He 
is  always  trying  to  get  something  out  of  me,"  was 
the  President's  remark. 

After  the  party  returned  to  New  York,  Gen. 
Grant,  Mr.  Gould  and  Mr.  Corbin  had  private  in- 
terviews on  the  gold  question  at  Mr.  Corbin's  house. 
As  a  result  of  these  interviews,  according  to  Mr. 
Gould's  testimony,  the  President  remarked  that  the 
government  would  do  nothing  during  the  fall 
months  to  put  down  the  price  of  gold  or  to  make 
money  tight.  Just  after  those  interviews  Mr.  Gould 
purchased  two  millions  in  government  bonds  for 
Mr.  Corbin's  account.  The  next  interview  with 
President  Grant  on  this  great  subject  was  at  New- 
port, where  James  Fisk,  Jr.,  followed  him. 

Fisk  testified  that  Corbin  told  him  that  Mrs. 

Grant  had  an  interest  in  the  gold  speculations;  that 

five  hundred  thousand  of  gold  had  been  taken  bv 
7 


100 


THE  GOLD  CONSPIRACY. 


Mr.  Gould  at  131  and  132,  which  had  been  sold  at 
137;  that  Mr.  Corbin  h^ld  for  himself  about  two  mil- 
lions of  gold,  five  hundred  thousand  of  which  was  for 
Mrs.  Grant  and  five  hundred  thousand  for  "Porter." 

The  story  of  the  conspiracy,  as  Mr.  Clews  tells  it, 
is  interesting  as  well,  and  has  certain  points  of  differ- 
ence from  the  others.    He  says: 

"Although  the  policy  of  stopping  the  sale  of  gold 
had  been  agreed  upon  in  deference  to  the  views  of 
the  best  financiers  of  the  country,  yet  Mr.  Gould  and 
his  fellow  strategists  thought  it  was  best  to  make 
assurance  doubly  sure  on  this  point,  in  order  that 
nothing  might  stand  in  the  way  of  the  great  specu- 
lative intrigue  to  get  a  "corner"  in  gold.  President 
Grant  was  conservative  on  the  subject.  The  conspir- 
ators, therefore,  conceived  the  design  of  arranging 
things  so  that  Secretary  Boutwell  could  not  depart 
from  this  policy,  no  matter  what  emergency  might 
arise. 

"This  bold  and  wicked  strategy  could  only  be 
successful  by  first  getting  President  Grant  convinced 
that  the  theory  of  stopping  the  gold  sales  was  the 
only  commercial  salvation  for  the  country,  in  the 
then  condition  of  business  stagnation  and  the  possi- 
ble panic  threatened.  The  theory  was  then  to  impress 
him  with  the  necessity  of  giving  Secretary  Boutwell 
an  absolute  order  not  to  sell  gold,  and  afterward  to 
fix  things  so  that  it  would  be  impossible  for  the 
President  to  revoke  that  order  until  the  brilliant  spec- 
ulative purposes  of  the  clique  in  cornering  gold 
should  be  accomplished. 


THE  GOLD  CONSPIRACY. 


lOI 


"  The  scheme  was  but  little  short  of  treason, 
regarded  from  a  patriotic  point  of  view,  and  it  is  very 
questionable  if  the  perpetrators  would  have  stopped 
short  of  this  dastardly  act  had  they  not  been  con- 
vinced that  their  purpose  was  fully  compassed  by  a 
method  less  villianous  and  shocking.  It  was  consid- 
ered indispensable  by  the  conspirators  for  the  con- 
summation of  their  plans  that  Grant  should  be  got  out 
of  the  way  by  some  means  or  other.  Fortunately 
for  him  and  for  the  honor  of  the  nation,  the  plan 
succeeded  without  the  necessity  of  offering  him  any 
violence. 

"It  was  arranged  that  Gen.  Grant  should  ac- 
company a  party  one  beautiful  evening  in  the 
middle  of  June,  who  were  going  to  attend  the  great 
Peace  Jubilee  of  Patrick  Sarsfield  Gilmore  in  Boston. 
Jim  Fisk  did  the  executive  work  in  the  arrange- 
ment. There  was  a  fine  champagne  supper  on  board 
the  Boston  boat  and  several  gentlemen  were  present 
who  were  thoroughly  conversant  with  financial 
question's  and  could  talk  glibly  on  the  state  of  the 
country.  Mr.  Gould  said,  in  his  testimony:  'I  took 
the  ground  that  the  government  ought  to  let  go  of 
the  loan  and  let  it  find  its  commercial  level;  that  in 
fact  it  ought  to  faciliate  an  upward  movement  in 
gold  in  the  fall.' 

''This  reference  to  *its  commercial  level'  is  rich, 
coming  from  the  head  center  of  the  plotters  who 
wanted  to  put  the  article  up  to  200. 

"About  the  time  the  above  events  were  transpir- 
ing, the  Assistant  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  Mr.  H. 


102 


THE  GOLD  CONSPIRACY. 


H.  VanDyck,  resigned  his  office  in  this  city.  Mr. 
Gould's  cliief  ambition  was  to  name  his  successor  in 
order  that  he  might  be  able  to  control  the  treasury 
when  the  time  to  get  a  corner  in  gold  should  be 
ripe.  Mr.  Abel  R.  Corbin  came  in  quite  handy  at 
this  juncture  to  help  to  further  the  designs  of  Mr. 
Gould.  He  was  a  man  of  fair  education  and  con- 
siderable experience  both  in  business  and  politics. 
He  had  been  a  lobbyist  in  Washington  for  some 
years.  He  was  well  informed  on  financial  matters, 
a  pretty  good  writer,  and  could  talk  like  a  book. 
His  wife  was  a  sister  of  Mrs.  Grant  and  he  had  good 
opportunities  for  reaching  the  presidential  ear,  which 
he  employed  to  the  best  advantage. 

"A  gentleman  named  Robert  B.  Catherwood,  who 
was  married  to  a  step-daughter  of  Mr.  Corbin,  was 
approached  by  Gould  and  Corbin  on  the  subject  of 
the  Assistant  Treasurership.  They  were  anxious  that 
Mr.  Catherwood  should  take  the  office  and  told  him 
that  he  would  make  a  great  deal  of  money  in  a  per- 
fectly legitimate  manner  if  he  were  once  installed. 

"So  Mr.  Catherwood  stated  in  his  testimoncy 
before  the  investigating  committee,  but  he  adds: 
'My  ideas  differed  from  theirs  in  what  constituted  a 
legitimate  manner  and  I  declined  the  office.' 

''The  office  then  sought  another  man  in  the  per- 
son of  Gen.  Daniel  Butterfi*eld.  He  received  the 
intimation  of  his  appointment  in  a  very  different 
spirit  from  Mr.  Catherwood,  showing  that  he  was 
fully  equal  to  the  occasion.  He  wrote  a  letter  to 
Mr.  Corbin,  thanking  him  kindly  for  the  offer,  say- 


THE  GOLK)  CONSPIRACY.  10^ 

ing  that  he  was  under  numerous  obligations  to  him, 
and  expressing  a  hope  that  he  would  be  eminently 
successful  in  his  undertaking.  Gen.  Butterfield  re- 
ceived his  commission  in  due  course. 

"Corbin  talked  with  Grant  until  he  received  a 
positive  assurance  that  Boutwell  was  not  to  sell  any 
more  gold.  At  a  meeting  in  Grant's  house,  where 
Gould  and  Corbin  were  present,  the  President  said: 
'Boutwell  gave  an  order  to  sell  gold,  and  I  heard  of 
it  and  countermanded  the  order.' 

"It  was  not  until  Gould  had  received  positive 
assurance  from  the  President's  own  lips,  that  he  con- 
sidered his  scheme  perfect.  But  the  links  of  this 
strategic  chain  were  now  nearly  all  forged.  The 
bankers  and  merchants  were  largely  in  his  favor 
through  commercial  necessity,  the  Sub-Treasury  was 
'fixed,'  as  he  thought,  and  the  executive  fiat  had 
placed  the  Treasury  of  the  United  States  itself  where 
it  could  not  spoil  the  deal  if  Grant  did  not  change 
his  mind.  There  were  reasons,  of  course,  to  appre- 
hend that  he  would  do  so  in  case  of  an  emergency; 
for  he  never  was  privy  to  the  scheme,  no  matter 
what  his  traducers  and  political  enemies  may  have 
said. 

"To  insure  perfect  safety,  then,  Grant  must  be 
put  out  of  the  way  temporarily.  This  was  the 
crowning  effort  of  the  conspirators.  After  the 
Boston  Peace  Jubilee,  this  Cabal  spent  the  remaining 
part  of  the  summer  in  maturing  its  designs. 

"It  seemed  necessary  that  all  the  members  of  the 
Cabal  should  be  fully  acquainted  with  the  combina- 


104 


THE  GOLD  CONSPIRACY. 


tion  to  Grant's  purposes  as  regarded  his  orders  to 
Boutwell,  and  that  his  ideas  should  remain  fixed  on 
the  theory  of  increasing  exportation  for  the  coun- 
try's safety.  Accordingly,  it  was  arranged  that  Jim 
Fisk  should  visit  the  President  at  Newport,  where  he 
was  on  a  visit,  some  time  about  the  middle  of  August, 
a  month  or  so  prior  to  Black  Friday.  It  would 
seem  that  Grant  at  this  date  was  still  wavering  and 
adhering  to  his  policy  of  selling  gold,  in  spite  of  the 
order  which  he  had  given  Boutwell.  He  may  have 
been  suspecting  that  the  anxiety  of  Gould,  Corbin 
&  Co.  for  the  prosperity  of  the  country- was  not  alto- 
gether genuine.  The  necessity  of  bringing  further 
pressure  to  bear  upon  him  was,  therefore,  clearly 
manifest. 

"Referring  to  the  interview  at  Newport,  Fisk  said: 
*  I  think  it  was  some  time  in  August  that  General 
Grant  started  to  go  to  Newport.  I  then  went  down 
to  see  him.  I  had  seen  him  before,  but  not  feeling 
as  thoroughly  acquainted  as  I  desired  for  this  pur- 
pose, I  took  a  letter  of  introduction  from  Mr.  Gould, 
in  which  it  was  stated  that  there  were  three  hundred 
sail  of  vessels  then  on  the  Mediterranean,  from  the 
Black  Sea,  with  grain  to  supply  the  Liverpool  market. 
Gold  was  then  about  thirty-four.  If  it  continued  at 
that  price,  we  had  very  little  chance  of  carrying 
forward  the  crop  during  the  fall.  I  know  that  we 
felt  nervous  about  it.  I  talked  with  Gen.  Grant 
on  the  subject  and  endeavored,  as  far  as  I  could,  to 
convince  him  that  his  policy  was  one  that  would 
only  bring  destruction  on  us  all.    He  then  asked  me 


THE  GOLD  CONSPIRACY. 


105 


when  we  should  have  an  interview,  and  we  agreed 
upon  the  time.  He  said:  'During  that  time  I  will 
see  Mr.  Boutwell,  or  have  him  there.' 

"The  President  was  carefully  shadowed  after 
this  by  the  detectives  of  the  clique,  and  great  care 
was  taken  to  throw  men  across  his  path  who  were 
fluent  talkers  on  the  great  financial  problem  of  the 
day,  the  absolute  necessity  of  stimulating  the  export 
trade  and  raising  the  premium  upon  gold  for  that 
patriotic  purpose.  In  this  way.  President  Grant 
began  to  think  that  the  opinion  of  almost  everybody 
he  talked  with  on  this  subject  was  on  the  same  side, 
and  must,  therefore,  be  correct. 

"About  the  first  of  September,  it  was  considered 
that  the  opinions  of  the  President  had  been  worked 
up  fairly  to  the  sticking  point,  and  Gould  bought 
$1,500,000  in  gold  at  132^  for  Corbin.  Gould,  how- 
ever, was_ timid  in  his  purchasing  at  first,  as  he  had 
heard  that  a  number  of  operators  who  were  short  of 
gold  were  making  arrangements  to  give  Secretary 
Boutwell  a  dinner.  On  further  assurance  from  Cor- 
bin that  the  President  had  written  Boutwell  to  sell 
no  gold  without  consulting  him,  Gould  prepared  to 
go  ahead  with  the  execution  of  his  great  scheme. 
Nothing  remained  to  be  done  in  the  completion  of 
the  plot  except  to  stow  away  the  President  in  a 
place  of  safety  until  the  financial  storm  should  blow 
over." 


CHAPTER  IX. 


CULMINATION  OF  CONSPIRACY — BLACK  FRIDAY. 

SEPTEMBER  is  the  memorable  month  of  the  gold 
conspiracy  in  Wall  street.  Between  the  20th  of 
August  and  the  first  of  September,  Gould,  in  com- 
pany with  Woodward  and  Kimber,  two  large  specu- 
lators, made  a  pool  to  raise  the  premium  on  gold, 
and  some  ten  or  fifteen  millions  were  bought,  but 
with  very  little  effect  on  the  price. 

An  event  now  took  place  which  would  have 
seemed  to  justify  the  implicit  belief  of  an  Erie 
treasurer  in  the  corruptibility  of  all  mankind.  The 
unsuspicious  President  again  passed  through  New 
York,  and  came  to  breakfast  at  Mr.  Corbin's  house 
on  the  2d  of  September.  He  saw  no  one  but  Mr. 
Corbin  while  there,  and  the  same  evening  at  ten 
o'clock,  departed  for  Saratoga.  Mr.  Gould  declared 
afterward,  however,  that  he  was  told  by  Mr.  Corbin 
that  the  President,  in  discussing  the  financial  situa- 
tion, had  shown  himself  a  convert  to  the  Erie  theory 
about  marketing  the  crops,  and  had  stopped  in  the 
jniddle  of  1  conversation  in  which  he  had  expressed 
his  views  and  written  a  letter  to  Secretary  Bout- 
well.  In  regard  to  this  letter.  Secretary  Boutwell 
testified  as  follows: 

*T  think  on  the  evening  of  the  4th  of  September 

106 


'black  FRIDAY''  IN  WALL  STREET. 


CULMINATION  OF  CONSflRACV. 


I  received  a  letter  from  the  President,  dated  at  New 
York,  as  I  recollect  it;  I  am  not  sure  where  it  was 
dated.  In  that  letter  he  expressed  an  opinion  that 
it  was  undesirable  to  force  down  the  price  of  gold. 
He  spoke  of  the  importance  to  the  West  of  being 
able  to  move  their  crops.  His  idea  was  that  if  gold 
should  fall,  the  West  should  suffer  and  the  move- 
ment of  the  crop  would  be  retarded.  The  impres- 
sion made  on  my  mind  by  the  letter  was  that  he  had 
rather  a  strong  opinion  to  that  effect.  Upon  the 
receipt  of  the  President's  letter,  I  telegraphed  to 
Judge  Richardson,  'Send  no  order  to  Butterfield  as 
to  sales  of  gold  until  you  hear  from  me.' " 

Mr.  Gould  had  therefore  succeeded  in  reversing 
the  policy  of  the  National  Government,  but  this  was 
not  all.  He  knew  what  the  government  would  do 
before  any  officer  of  the  government  knew  it.  Mr. 
Gould  was  at  Corbin's  house  on  the  2d  of  Septem- 
ber, and  it  seems  certain  that  he  saw  Corbin 
privately,  unknown  to  the  President,  within  an  hour 
or  two  after  this  letter  to  Mr.  Boutwell  was  written, 
and  that  it  was  at  this  interview,  while  the  President 
was  still  in  the  house,  that  Mr.  Corbin  gave  him  the 
information  about  the  letter,  perhaps  showed  him 
the  letter  itself.  It  was  immediately  at  this  time 
that  Gould  bought  $1,500,000  worth  of  gold  for 
"Corbin. 

No  time  was  lost,  and  from  this  day  Gould  bought 
largely  of  gold.  He  did  everything  to  give  the  pub- 
lic the  impression  that  the  government  was  behind 
the  ''deal."    An  article  written  by  Corbin  was  pub- 


CULMINATION  OF  CONSPIRACY. 


lished  as  an  editorial  in  the  Times  and  attracted  at- 
tention, as  the  editor,  John  Bigelovv,  had  just  had  a 
conversation  with  the  President  and  was  supposed  to 
speak  with  authority.  Notwithstanding  the  author- 
ship of  the  article,  it  is  just  to  say  that  the  Times 
detected  the  odor  of  Wall  street  about  it  and  quar- 
antined the  article  before  making  it  public.  Its 
effectiveness  for  Gould  was  much  lessened.  Gould 
wrote  to  Boutwell  with  a  view  of  obtaining  an 
official  statement  from  him,  but  received  a  reply 
that  said  little  and  that  diplomatically.  IVTeanwhile 
Gould  had  been  buying  millions  in  gold  and  had 
formed  a  pool  that  bought  millions  more.  That  the 
movement  was  fictitious  is  shown  by  the  fact  that 
the  impression  on  prices  was  comparatively  small. 
Fisk  looked  on  incredulously.  "The  country  is 
against  you,"  was  his  criticism  of  the  scheme. 

Down  to  this  moment  Jim  Fisk  had  not  appeared 
in  the  affair.  It  was  not  until  after  September 
lOth  that  Gould  appears  to  have  decided  that  there 
was  nothing  else  to  be  done  but  to  take  him  into 
confidence.  Fisk  immediately  bought  seven  or 
eight  millions  and  the  market  began  to  respond 
slowly  to  these  enormous  purchases. 

"Meanwhile  Mr.  Gould  had  placed  another  million 
and  a  half  of  gold  to  the  account  of  Gen.  Butterfield 
and  notified  him  of  the  purchase;  so  Mr.  Gould 
swears,  in  spite  of  Gen.  Butterfield's  denial^.  The  date 
of  this  purchase  is  not  fixed.  Through  Mr.  Corbin  a 
notice  was  also  sent  by  Gould  about  the  middle 
of  September  to  the  President's  private  secretary, 


CULMlNAtlON  OF  CONSPIRACY.  IO9 


Gen.  Porter,  informing  him  that  half  a  million  was 
placed  to  his  credit.  Gen.  Porter  instantly  wrote 
to  repudiate  his  purchase,  but  it  does  not  appear 
that  Butterfield  took  any  notice  of  Gould's  transac- 
tion on  his  account.  On  the  lOth  of  September  the 
President  had  again  come  to  New  York,  where  he 
remained  his  brother-in-law's  guest  till  the  13th,  and 
during  this  visit  Mr.  Gould  appears  again  to  have 
seen  him,  although  Mr.  Corbin  avers  that  on  this 
occasion  the  President  intimated  his  wish  to  the 
servant  that  this  should  be  the  last  time  Mr.  Gould 
obtain  admission. 

"Things  were  rrow  so  managed  that  the  President 
was  placed  in  a  position  that  his  honoivwas  seriously 
in  danger  of  being  compromised,  yet  so  ably  was 
the  matter  engineered  that  he  was  perfectly  uncon- 
scious of  the  designs  of  the  plotters.  He  was  pre- 
vailed tipon  to  go  to  a  then  obscure  town  in  Pennsyl- 
vania, named  Little  Washington  The  thing  was  so  ar- 
ranged that  his  feelings  were  worked  upon  to  visit 
that  place  for  the  purpose  of  seeing  an  old  friend 
who  resided  there.  The  town  was  cut  off  from  tele- 
graphic communications,  and  the  other  means  of 
access  were  not  very  convenient.  The  President 
set  out  on  his  journey  on  the  morning  of  the  13th, 
and  there  he  was  ensconced  to  remain  for  a  week  or 
so,  about  the  time  the  Cabal  was  fully  prepared  for 
action. 

"Gould  then  said  to  Fisk:  'This  matter  is  all 
fixed  up.  Butterfield  is  all  right.  Corbin  has  got 
Butterfield  all  right  and  Corbin  has  got  Grant  fixed 


liO  CULMINATION  OP  CONSPItlACV. 


all  right,  and  in  my  opinion  they  are  all  interested 
together.' 

"This  was  patriotism  with  a  vengeance.  Just 
think  of  the  audacity  of  it!  Gould  enters  into  a 
scheme  to  place  the  President  in  a  position  where 
he  could  not  interfere  with  the  plan  of  getting  a 
'corner'  on  gold,  and  then  he  turns  around  ancj  ac- 
cuses the  first  magistrate  of  the  republic  with  being 
privy  to  a  plot  that  was  calculated  to  create  a  panic 
and  cause  widespread  disaster  in  business  circles  and 
make  him  an  object  of  universal  contempt." 

Some  of  the  members  of  the  pool  got  frightened 
and  sold  out,  but  Gould  continued  to  buy.  **  I  had 
to  buy,"  testified  Gould  afterward,  "  or  show  the 
white  feather.  The  other  fellows  deserted  me  like 
rats."  Gould  had  the  material  aid  of  the  Tenth 
National  Bank,  an  institution  which  he  owned  and 
which  he  used  as  an  adjunct  to  his  speculative  oper- 
ations. The  extent  to  which  he  used  it  in  the  gold 
conspiracy  was  shown  by  the  fact  that  it  in  one  day 
overcertified  Gould's  checks  to  the  amount  of 
$7,500,000.  Garfield  called  this  bank  "a  manufac- 
tory of  certified  checks." 

As  Gould  bought  the  bears  sold  "short"  and  the 
battle  became  intensely  exciting. 

Fisk's  assistance  was  as  valuable  as  Gould 
expected  it  to  be.  He  took  no  stock  in  the  crop 
theory,  but  the  idea  of  making  the  administration  a 
partner  in  the  diabolical  enterprise  seems  to  have 
attracted  him.  "Nothing,"  said  Garfield  in  his  report 
to  Congress,  "nothing  but  the  scent  of  corruption 


CULMINATION  OF  CONSPIRACY. 


Ill 


could  sharpen  the  appetite  of  Fisk  for  the  game  his 
leader  (Gould)  was  pursuing.  The  compounded 
villainy  presented  by  Gould  and  Corbin  was  too 
tempting  a  bait."  So  Fisk  was  drawn  into  the 
movement  when  his  aid  was  most  needed.  This 
corner  was  a  glittering  edifice  built  on  a  foundation 
of  deceit  and  corruption.  It  could  not  long  stand. 
The  most  that  Gould  and  Fisk  could  do  was  to 
frighten  the  "shorts"  into  covering  before  Grant 
awakened  to  the  realization  of  how  he  was  being 
used  and  issue  orders  to  sell  gold.  Wall  street  was 
soon  filled  with  rumors  that  the  administration  was 
in  the  deal  and  the  excitement  ran  high. 

"The  malign  influence,"  says  the  Congressional 
report  already  quoted,  "which  Cataline  wielded  over 
the  reckless  and  abandoned  youth  of  Rome  finds  a 
fitting  parallel  in  the  power  which  Fisk  held  in  Wall 
street  when,  followed  by  the  thugs  of  Erie  and  the 
debauchees  of  the  opera,  he  swept  into  the  gold- 
room  and  defied  both  the  street  and  the  Treasury." 

The  magnitude  of  the  conspiracy  is  shown  by  the 
fact  that  before  Black  Friday  Gould  had  employed 
fifty  to  sixty  brokers  to  make  his  purchases,  and 
$50,000,000  to  $60,000,000  of  gold  had  been  bought 
by  William  Heath  &  Co.,  Woodward,  H.  K.  Enos, 
E.  K.  Willard,  and  others  of  the  brokers.  He  re- 
quired all  this  to  advance  the  price  of  gold  from 
135^  to  I40>^. 

Fisk's  entrance  into  the  game  was  a  powerful 
help  to  Gould,  for  it  not  only  furnished  another 
purchaser  for  gold,  but  directed  public  attention 


112 


CULMINATION  OF  CONSPIRACY. 


from  himself  to  Fisk.  The  ex-peddler  loved  to  bask 
in  the  sun  of  public  notoriety.  Gould  was  timid, 
but  Fisk  had  the  brazen  courage  of  a  courtesan. 

Gould  and  Fisk  now  became  exceedingly  nerv- 
ous over  the  firmness  of  the  President's  policy. 
He  induced  Mr.  Corbin  to  write  a  letter  directly  to 
the  President  himself.  This  letter,  written  on  the 
seventeenth,  under  the  influence  of  Gould's  anxiety, 
was  instantly  sent  away  by  a  special  messenger  of 
Fisk's, who  rode  twenty-eight  miles  on  horseback  from 
Pittsburg,  and  delivered  it  in  person  to  the  President. 
He  read  the  letter,  and  had  his  suspicions  at  once 
aroused.  He  said  laconically  to  the  messenger:  "It 
is  satisfactory;  there  is  no  answer."  He  began  to- 
see  through  the  game,  and  at  once  desired  Mrs. 
Grant  to  write  to  Mrs.  Corbin  requesting  her 
husband  to  have  nothing  more  to  do  with  the  Gould- 
Fisk  gang. 

The  messenger  telegraphed  "All  right"  to  the 
conspirators. 

"We  now  come  to  the  week  which  was  to  witness 
the  explosion  of  all  this  elaborately  constructed 
mine.  On  Monday  the  20th,  gold  again  rose. 
Throughout  Tuesday  and  Wednesday,  Fisk  con- 
tinued to  purchase  without  limit  and  forced  the 
price  up  to  40,  At  this  time,  Gould's  firm  of  Smith, 
Gould  &  Martin,  through  which  the  operation  was 
conducted,  had  purchased  some  $50,000,000,  and  yet 
the  bears  went  on  selling,  although  they  could  only 
continue  the  contest  by  borrowing  Gould's  own 
gold.    Gould,  on  the  other  hand,  could  no  longer 


CULMINATION  OF  CONSPIRACY. 


sell  and  clear  himself,  for  the  reason  that  the  sale  of 
$50,000,000  would  have  broken  the  market  to  noth- 
ing. The  struggle  had  become  intense.  The  whole 
country  was  looking  on  with  astonishment  at  the 
battle  between  the  bulls  and  the  bears.  All  business 
was  deranged  and  all  values  unsettled.  There  were 
indications  of  a  panic  in  the  stock  market;  and  the 
bears,  in  their  emergency,  were  vehemently  pressing 
the  government  to  intervene.  Gould  now  wrote  to 
Mr.  Boutwell  a  letter  so  inconceivably  impudent 
that  it  indicates  desperation  and  entire  loss  of  his 
ordinary  coolness: 

"Sir:  There  is  a  panic  in  Wall  street,  engineered 
by  a  bear  combination.  They  have  withdrawn  cur- 
rency to  such  an  extent  that  it  is  impossible  to  do 
ordinary  business.  The  Erie  company  requires 
$800,000  to  disburse.  Much  of  it  in  Ohio,  where  an 
exciting  political  contest  was  going  on  and  where 
we  have  about  ten  thousand  employed,  and  the 
trouble  is  charged  on  the  administration.  Cannot 
you  consistently  increase  your  line  of  currency?" 

From  a  friend,  such  a  letter  would  have  been  an 
outrage,  but  from  a  member  of  the  Tammany  ring, 
the  principal  object  of  detestation  to  the  govern- 
ment, such  a  threat  or  bribe,  whichever  it  may  be 
called,  was  incredible.  Mr.  Gould  was,  in  fact,  at 
his  wits'  end.  He  dreaded  a  panic  and  felt  that 
it  could  no  longer  be  avoided. 

The  conspirators  interpreted  the  telegram  from 
their  messenger,  reading  "all  right"  to  mean  a 
favorable  answer  to  the  letter,  and  they  were  much 


114 


CULMINATION  OF  CONSPIRACY. 


elated.  But  the  President,  supposing  that  the  mes- 
senger was  only  a  clerk  from  the  post-office,  had 
said  "all  right"  merely  to  indicate  that  he  had 
received  the  letter  and  required  his  presence  no 
longer.  His  suspicions  were  aroused  after  the 
messenger  had  left,  when  he  ascertained  that  he  had 
brought  the  letter  at  post-haste  all  the  way  from 
New  York.  That  night  Mrs.  Grant  wrote  to  Mrs. 
Corbin  a  note  stating  that  the  President  had  heard 
that  Mr.  Corbin  was  engaged  in  Wall  street  specu- 
lations, and  if  it  were  true  he  desired  that  he  should 
immediately  dissociate  himself  from  them.  This 
letter  filled  Gould  with  consternation.  He  and 
Corbin  sat  in  the  latter's  house  all  night  reading 
and  rereading  the  note  and  endeavoring  to  grasp 
the  meaning  between  the  lines.  "If  you  show  that 
note,"  said  Gould,  finally,  *T  am  a  ruined  man." 
Corbin  said  he  must  obey  orders  and  leave  the 
street,  but  he  insisted  Gould  should  first  take  up  the 
gold  held  in  Corbin's  name  and  pay  him  the  profits. 
Corbin  had  already  received  a  check  for  $25,000. 
But  Gould  had  already  all  the  gold  he  wanted,  and 
after  standing  for  a  while  in  silence  by  the  door,  his 
brow  black  with  mystery,  he  left  the  house. 

The  game  was  up.  One  stroke  of  a  woman's 
pen  had  punctured  the  dazzling  bubble.  A  word 
from  the  President  was  sufficient  to  collapse  the 
biggest  corner  on  record.  How  to  save  himself? 
That  was  the  question  which,  with  knit  brow  and 
lips  compressed  with  hidden  excitement,  Gould  de- 
bated as  he  returned  home  that  night.    No  thought 


CULMINATION  OF  CONSPIRACY. 


for  others  who  were  deep  in  the  game  with  himself. 
No  thought  for  Fisk,  his  friend  and  associate.  His 
mind  labored  for  himself  alone.  He  soon  reached 
a  conclusion.  While  there  was  yet  time  he  would 
dump  his  heavy  load  of  gold  on  the  market  and  let 
others  take  what  he  could  not  carry.  His  only  cap- 
ital now  was  the  early  information  he  possessed  of 
the  President's  aroused  suspicions;  of  his  change  of 
purpose.  He  did  not  tell  even  Fisk  of  Mrs.  Grant's 
letter  to  Mrs.  Corbin,  but  let  Fisk  continue  his  pur- 
chases in  ignorance  of  the  real  situation.  He  only 
remarked  to  Fisk  that  Corbin  was  getting  weary  and 
wanted  his  profits,  or  something  to  that  purpose. 
Thursday — the  day  preceding  Black  Friday — Gould 
began  his  dumping  process.  **I  sold  that  day,"  he 
testified  afterward,  "and  only  bought  enough  to 
make  the  street  think  I  was  still  a  bull." 

Here  is  Mr.  Clews'  story  of  days  immediately 
preceding  the  fatal  Friday. 

**0n  Wednesday,  the  22d  of  September,  two 
days  preceding  'Black  Friday,'  the  clique,  it  is 
believed,  owned  several  millions  more  gold  than 
there  was  in  the  city,  outside  the  vaults  of  the  sub- 
treasury.  Belden  bought  about  eight  millions  of 
gold  on  that  day,  while  Smith,  Gould,  Martin  &  Co. 
were  also  heavy  purchasers.  The  clique  held  a  cau- 
cus in  the  office  of  Wm.  Heath  &  Co.  in  Broad  street 
and  concluded  that  it  had  gold  enough  to  put  the 
price  to  200  if  it  could  carry  the  gold  without  lend- 
ing and  compel  the  shorts  to  purchase.  But  the 
idea  of  finding  a  market  for  over  thirty  millions  of 

8 


Il6  CULMINATION  OF  CONSPIRACY. 

gold  was  also  a  gigantic  problem,  and  they  felt  the 
risk  of  being  ground  between  the  upper  and  the 
nether  millstones  of  their  scheme. 

"On  the  morning  of  Thursday  another  council  of 
war  was  held  in  the  ofifice  of  Belden  &  Co.,  on  Broad- 
way. At  this  meeting,  Gould,  Fisk,  Henry  N.  Smith 
and  William  Belden  were  present.  The  proceedings 
of  this  meeting  were  kept  a  profound  secret, but  one 
result  of  it  was  that  Belden  gave  his  clerk  the  famous 
order  to  put  gold  to  144  and  keep  it  there.  On  that 
day  Belden  purchased  about  twenty  millions  of  gold, 
the  price  opening  at  141}^  and  closing  at  14^%. 

''The  chiefs  of  the  Cabal  had  another  private 
meeting  up  town  that  evening.  The  great  question 
of  closing  up  the  transactions  on  the  following  day 
was  the  chief  topic  of  discussion.  These  operators 
held  contracts  for  over  $100,000,000  in  gold.  Gould 
said  that  the  'short'  interest  was  $250,000,000.  The 
total  amount  of  gold  in  the  city  did  not  exceed  $25,- 
000,000,  and  the  difference  between  this  and  the 
aggregate  amount  of  the  contracts  of  the  clique  was 
the  enormous  amount  that  would  have  to  be  settled 
in  the  event  of  a  'corner.' 

"Fisk  proposed  that  the  clique  show  its  hand, 
publish  the  state  of  affairs,  and  offer  to  settle  with 
the  shorts  at  150.  His  plan  was  rejected  by  his 
brother  conspirators." 

And  now  opens  that  remarkable  day  in  Septem- 
ber, 1869,  known  as  "Black  Friday."  Wall  street 
has  passed  through  other  days  of  excitement  and 
calamity,  but  even  the  panic  days  of  1873  and  1884 


CULMINATION  OF  CONSPIRACY. 


pale  before  the  awful  passion  and  fury  of  Black 
Friday. 

The  New  York  World  of  September  25,  1869,  thus 
describes  the  day: 

"The  scene  during  the  conflict  almost  beggars 
description  and  exceeds  anything  ever  before  wit- 
nessed in  Wall  street.  It  was  a  tussle  of  enormous 
magnitude,  fierce  and  desperate.  It  was  a  day  long 
to  be  remembered  and  not  easily  forgotten  by  those 
who  witnessed  it  or  were  caught  in  the  maelstrom 
that  carried  everything  before  it." 

The  conspirators  were  early  in  the  street,  and 
the  offices  of  Smith,  Gould  &  Martin,  Fisk  &  Belden 
and  William  Heath  &  Co.  were  the  center  of  enor- 
mous excitement.  William  Belden,  who  was  Fisk's 
partner,  played  a  conspicuous  part  in  this  day's  his- 
tory. He  was  a  man  cool  and  daring — the  fit  com- 
panion of  such  men  as  Gould  and  Fisk.  The  day, 
however,  left  a  stain  on  his  record  that  could  never 
be  obliterated,  and  when,  in  1888,  Belden  formed  a 
co-partnership  with  a  member  of  the  Stock  Exchange, 
the  governing  committee  of  the  institution  stated 
that  unless  the  member  severed  his  partnership  with 
Belden  he  must  leave  the  Exchange. 

Gould,  Fisk,  Belden  and  their  brokers  held  a 
counsel  of  war  and  laid  out  the  work  of  the  day. 
Heath  was  to  look  after  this,  Willard  was  to  attend 
to  that,  Belden  was  to  direct  this  and  Fisk  was  to  di- 
rect that,  while  "Gould" — the  language  of  the  Con- 
gressional report  is  now  quoted — "Gould,  the  guilty 
plotter  of  all  these  criminal  proceedings,  determined 


Ii8 


CULMINATION  OF  CONSPIRACY. 


to  betray  his  own  associates,  and  silent  and  imper- 
turbable, by  nods  and  whispers  directed  all."  "I 
determined,"  said  Mr.  Gould  afterward,  "not  to 
open  my  mouth  that  day,  and  I  did  not." 

What  a  study  for  a  dramatic  painter  Gould  would 
have  made  that  day! 

There  was  undoubtedly  some  secret  understand- 
ing between  Fisk  and  Belden  to  which  Gould  was  a 
party,  by  which  all  the  orders  given  that  day  could 
be  repudiated  if  the  market  went  against  them.  A 
ready  tool  was  found  in  Albert  Speyer,  who  accepted 
verbal  orders  from  Belden  in  the  presence  of  Gould 
and  Fisk  to  buy,  and  who  went  into  the  board-room 
and  did  buy  immense  quantities  of  gold  at  the  high- 
est prices.  The  street  was  filled  with  the  wildest 
rumors.  Prices  rapidly  advanced  to  165.  The  shorts 
trembled  before  the  rising  tide  that  seemed  about 
to  sweep  over  them.  Many  were  frightened  into 
covering  their  contracts.  Gould  continued  to  sell. 
Fisk  and  Belden  continued  to  buy.  The  excitement 
rose  point  by  point  to  the  wildest  pitch.  Old  oper- 
ators lost  their  heads,  men  rushed  hatless  and  half 
crazy  through  the  streets,  their  eyes  bloodshot,  their 
faces  pale  with  anxiety,  their  brains  on  fire.  There 
came  rumors  of  contemplated  selling  of  gold  by  the 
Treasury,  and  the  street  went  mad.  Where  these 
rumors  started  no  one  ever  knew,  but  they  were  the 
forerunners  of  actual  fact.  James  Brown,  the  Scotch 
banker,  appeared  in  the  board  and  began  to  offer 
gold  at  declining  figures.  Then  the  earthquake 
started,  and  the  golden  edifice  built  by  Gould  began 


CULMINATION  OF  CONSPIRACY.  HQ 


to  tumble.  Soon  the  Treasury  order  to  sell  $4,000,- 
000  of  gold  appeared,  and  then  the  terrible  collapse. 
Prices  fell  from  165  to  133^.  The  board-room  was 
the  scene  of  contending  furies.  Albert  Speyer  com- 
pletely lost  control  of  himself;  his  hair  is  said  to 
have  turned  white  that  night  after  he  went  home  a 
ruined  man.  Wall  and  Broad  streets  were  filled 
with  men  wild  with  excitement.  Infuriated  mobs 
surrounded  the  offices  of  Fisk  &  Belden  and  Smith, 
Gould  &  Martin.  Threats  of  violence  were  made. 
Speyer  went  about  saying:  "Some  one  has  threatened 
to  shoot  me.  Let  him  shoot."  The  Gold  Exchange 
Bank  was  obliged  to  suspend  operations.  Its  clear- 
ances that  day  amounted  to  over  $300,000,000  of 
gold.  Trading  was  stopped  in  the  Gold -Board.  Fisk 
&  Belden  suspended  and  their  contracts  were  repu- 
diated. The  fortunes  of  hundreds  were  swept  away 
in  that  day's  battle.  Several  firms  were  driven  to 
the  wall  and  announced  their  failures.  The  ad- 
ministration was  involved  in  suspicion  which  it  took 
years  to  remove.  The  nation  was  disgraced  and  its 
credit  was  broken. 

But  Gould,  "the  guilty  plotter  of  all  these  crim- 
inal proceedings,"  went  home  saved.  What  he  made 
or  what  he  lost  in  that  struggle  is  unknown,  but 
though  he  had  involved  others  in  ruin  and  had 
betrayed  others,  he  had  saved  himself  from  over- 
throw. To  have  gone  down  in  the  fight  would  have 
been  a  display  of  heroism.  To  save  himself  alone 
from  the  wreck  was  dishonor. 

It  is  not  strange  that  in  his  sworn  autobiography 


120 


CULMINATION  OF  CONSPIRACY. 


delivered  to  the  Committee  on  Labor  and  Education, 
Mr.  Gould  omitted  all  mention  of  Black  Friday,  but 
when  as  a  witness  before  tire  Committee  on  Corners 
he  was  asked  about  the  Black  Friday  panic,  he  calmly 
said  that  it  was  the  "  result  of  overtrading,"  and  that 
its  real  cause  was  "the  fluctuations  in  the  price  of 
gold  caused  by  the  war!"  It  is  a  singular  coincidence 
that  exactly  twenty-two  years  after  Black  Friday, 
on  the  very  anniversary  of  the  day  in  1891,  Gould 
caused  another  big  flurry  in  Wall  street.  After  sev- 
eral years  of  depression,  a  "boom"  in  stocks  was  in 
progress,  when  the  sudden  announcement  was  made 
that  the  Missouri  Pacific,  of  which  Gould  was  presi- 
dent, would  pass  its  dividend.  The  announcement 
caused  a  revolution  in  prices  and  the  "boom"  com- 
pletely collapsed. 

Mr.  Clews  tells  a  graphic  story  of  what  he  saw: 
"On  the  morning  of  the  fatal  day,  Belden  and 
William  Heath  had  an  earljr  breakfast  together  at 
the  Fifth  Avenue  Hotel,  and  repaired  immediately 
to  their  offices.  Belden  announced  that  gold  was 
going  to  200.  'This  will  be  the  last  day  of  the 
Gold  Room,'  he  added.  Moved  by  Belden's  threat, 
a  large  number  rushed  to  cover.  In  the  language 
of  Henry  N.  Smith,  'They  came  on  with  a  rush  to 
settle.'  He  was  settling  in  the  oflice  of  Smith, 
Gould  &  Martin,  at  150  to  145,  while  Albert  Speyer, 
acting  as  broker  for  Fisk  and  Gould,  was  bidding 
up  to  160  for  a  million  at  a  time.  It  was  only  when 
the  price  came  down  to  133  that  Speyer  realized  the 


CULMINATION  OF  CONSPIRACY. 


121 


humorous  absurdity  of  his  position.  He  had  then 
bought  26  millions  since  morning  at  160. 

"A  voracious  demand  for  margins  about  midday 
brought  the  work  to  a  crisis.  The  scene  at  the  office 
of  Heath  was  indescribable  when  Belden  went  there 
to  see  Gould  and  his  confederates,  to  find  out  what 
was  to  be  done  next  with  the  frenzied  purchasers. 
An  eye-witness  thus  describes  the  scene  at  Heath's 
office:  T  went  outside  while  Belden  went  in.  I 
walked  up  and  down  the  alley-way  waiting  for  him 
to  come  out.  Deputy  sheriffs,  or  men  appearing  to 
be  such,  began  to  arrive  and  to  mount  guard  at 
Heath's  office  to  keep  out  visitors.  After  waiting  a 
prodigious  long  time,  as  it  seemed  to  me,  Jay  Gould 
came  creeping  out  of  the  back  door,  and  looking 
round  sharply  to  see  if  he  was  watched,  slunk  otf 
through  a  private  rear  passage  behind  the  buildings. 
Presently  came  Fisk,  steaming  hot  and  shouting. 
He  took  the  wrong  direction  at  first,  nearly  ran  into 
Broad  street,  but  soon  discovered  his  error  and  fol- 
lowed Gould  through  the  rear  passage.  Then  came 
Belden,  with  hair  disordered  and  red  eyes,  as  if  he 
had  been  crying.  He  called:  'Which  way  have  they 
gone?'  and  upon  my  pointing  the  direction,  he  ran 
after  them.  The  rear  passage  led  into  Wall  street. 
At  its  exit  the  conspirators  jumped  into  a  carriage 
and  fled  the  street." 

They  did  not  fly  the  street,  however,  but  went  to 
the  Broad  street  office  of  Smith,  Gould  &  Martin, 
where  the  crowd  assembled,  evidently  with  riotous 
intent,  apparently  bent  upon  an  application  to  Judge 


122 


CULMINATION  OF  CONSPIRACY. 


Lynch  for  justice;  and  had  any  of  the  gentlemen 
appeared  outside  the  confines  of  the  front  wall,  the 
chances  were  that  the  lamp-post  near  by  would  have 
very  soon  been  decorated  with  a  breathless  body. 
To  insure  their  safety  inside,  however,  a  small  police 
force  kept  guard  outside,  which  made  the  barricade 
complete.  These  gentlemen  remained  under  this 
shelter  until  the  small  hours  of  the  morning,  busily 
endeavoring  to  find  out  where  they  stood  in  the  re- 
sult of  the  gold  deal;  and  the  more  they  pondered 
over  it,  the  greater  grew  the  doubt  in  their  minds 
whether  they  were  standing  on  their  heads  or  their, 
heels." 

The  story  told  by  Mr.  Adams  is  also  worthy  of 
repetition  as  a  graphic  description  of  the  terrors  of 
the  day.  Beginning  with  the  morning  before,  he 
says: 

"It  was  the  morning  of  Thursday,  the  3d;  Gould 
and  Fisk  went  to  Broad  street  together,  but  as  usual 
Gould  was  silent  and  secret,  while  Fisk  was  noisy 
and  communicative.  There  was  now  a  complete 
separation  in  their  movements.  Gould  acted  entirely 
through  his  own  firm  of  Smith,  Gould  &  Martin, 
while  Fisk  operated  principally  through  his  old  part- 
ner, Belden.  One  of  Smith's  principal  brokers  testi- 
fies: 'Fisk  never  could  do  business  with  Smith,  Mar- 
tin &  Gould  very  comfortably.  They  would  not  do 
business  for  him.  It  was  a  very  uncertain  thing,  of 
course,  where  Fisk  might  be.  He  is  an  erratic  sort 
of  genius.  I  don't  think  anybody  would  want  to 
follow  him  very  long.    I  am  satisfied  that  Smith, 


CULMINATION  OF  CONSPIRACY. 


123 


Gould  &  Martin  controlled  their  own  gold  and  were 
ready  to  do  as  they  pleased  with  it  without  consult- 
ing Fisk.  I  do  not  think  there  was  any  general 
agreement.  None  of  us  who  knew  him  cared  to 
do  business  with  him.  I  would  not  have  taken  an 
order  from  him  nor  had  anything  to  do  with  him.* 
Belden  was  considered  a  very  low  fellow.  *I  never 
had  anything  to  do  with  him  or  his  party,'  said  one 
broker  employed  by  Gould.  'They  were  men  I  had 
a  perfect  detestation  of;  they  were  no  company  for 
me.  I  should  not  have  spoken  to  them  at  all  under 
ordinary  circumstances.'  Another  says,  'Belden  is 
a  man  in  whom  I  never  had  any  confidence  in  any 
way.  For  months  before  that  I  would  not  have  taken 
him  for  a  gold  transaction.' 

"And  yet  Beiden  bought  millions  upon  millions 
of  gold.  He  himself  says  he  had  bought  twenty 
millions  by  this  Thursday  evening,  and  this  without 
capital  or  credit  except  that  of  his  brokers.  Mean- 
while Gould,  on  reaching  the  city,  had  at  once  given 
secret  orders  to  sell.  From  the  moment  he  left 
Corbin  he  had  but  one  idea,  which  was  to  get  rid  of 
his  gold  as  quietly  as  possible.  'I  purchased  merely 
enough  to  make  believe  I  was  a  bull,'  says  Gould. 
This  double  process  continued  all  that  afternoon. 
Fisk's  wild  purchases  carried  the  price  up  to  144, 
and  the  panic  in  the  street  became  more  and  more 
serious  as  the  bears  realized  the  extremity  of  their 
danger.  No  one  can  tell  how  much  gold  which  did 
not  exist  they  had  contracted  to  deliver  or  pay  the 
difference  in  price.    One  of  the  clique  brokers  swears 


124 


CULMINATION  OF  CONSPIRACY. 


that  on  this  Thursday  evening  the  street  had  sold 
the  clique  one  hundred  and  eighteen  millions  of 
gold,  and  every  rise  of  one  per  cent,  on  this  sum 
implied  a  loss  of  more  than  one  million  dollars  to 
the  bears.  Naturally  the  terror  was  extreme,  for 
half  Broad  street  and  thousands  of  speculators  would 
have  been  ruined  if  compelled  to  settle  gold  at  150 
which  they  had  sold  at  140.  It  need  scarcely  be 
said  that  by  this  time  nothing  more  was  heard  in 
regard  to  philanthropic  theories  of  benefit  to  the 
western  farmer. 

"Mr.  Gould's  feelings  can  easily  be  imagined. 
He  knew  that  Fisk's  reckless  management  would 
bring  the  government  upon  his  shoulders,  and  he 
knew  that  unless  he  could  sell  his  gold  before  the 
order  came  from  Washington  he  would  be  a  ruined 
man.  He  knew,  too,  that  Fisk's  contracts  must  in- 
evitably be  repudiated.  This  Thursday  evening  he 
sat  at  his  desk  in  the  Erie  ofifices  at  the  opera  house, 
while  Fisk  and  Fisk's  brokers  chattered  about  him. 
T  was  transacting  my  railroad  business.  I  had  my 
own  views  about  the  market  and  my  own  fish  to  fry. 
I  was  all  alone,  so  to  speak,  in  what  I  did,  and  I  did 
not  let  any  of  those  people  know  exactly  how  I 
stood.  I  got  no  ideas  from  anything  that  was  said 
there.  I  had  been  selling  gold  from  35  up  all  the 
time,  and  I  did  not  know  till  the  next  morning  that 
there  would  probably  come  an  order  about  twelve 
o'clock  to  sell  gold.'  He  had  not  told  Fisk  a  word 
in  regard  to  Corbin's  retreat  nor  his  own  orders  to 
sell. 


CULMINATION  OF  CONSPIRACY. 


125 


"When  the  next  day  came,  Gould  and  Fisk  went 
together  to  Broad  street  and  took  possession  of  the 
private  back  office  of  a  principal  broker,  'without 
asking  the  privilege  of  doing  so,'  as  the  broker 
observes  in  his  evidence.  The  first  news  brought  to 
Gould  was  a  disaster.  The  government  had  sent 
three  men  from  Washington  to  examine  the  bank 
which  Gould  owned,  and  the  bank  sent  word  to  Mr. 
Gould  that  it  feared  to  certify  for  him  as  usual,  and 
was  itself  in  danger  of  a  panic,  caused  by  the  pres- 
ence of  officers,  which  created  distrust  of  the  bank. 
It  barely  managed  to  save  itself.  Gould  took  the 
information  silently,  and  his  firm  redoubled  sales  of 
gold.  His  partner.  Smith,  gave  the  orders  to  one 
broker  after  another — 'Sell  ten  millions!'  'The  order 
was  given  as  quick  as  a  flash,  and  away  he  went,' 
says  one  of  these  men.  'I  sold  only  eight  millions.' 
'Sell,  sell,  sell!  do  nothing  but  sell! — only  don't  sell 
to  Fisk's  brokers,'  were  the  orders  which  Smith  him- 
self acknowledges.  In  the  gold-room  Fisk's  brokers 
were  shouting  their  rising  bids,  and  the  packed 
crowd  grew  frantic  with  rage  and  terror  as  each  suc- 
cessive rise  showed  their  increasing  losses.  The 
wide  streets  outside  were  thronged  with  excited 
people;  the  telegraph  offices  were  overwhelmed  with 
messages  ordering  sales  or  purchases  of  gold  or 
stocks;  and  the  whole  nation  was  watching  eagerly  to 
see  what  the  result  of  this  convulsion  was  to  be. 
All  trade  was  stopped,  and  even  the  President  felt 
that  it  was  time  to  raise  his  hand.  No  one  who  has 
not  seen  the  New  York  gold-room  can  understand 


126 


CULMINATION  OF  CONSPIRACY. 


the  spectacle  it  presented;  now  a  perfect  pande- 
monium, now  silent  as  the  grave.  Fisk,  in  his  dark 
back  office  across  the  street,  with  his  coat  off,  swag- 
gered up  and  down,  'a  big  cane  in  his  hand,'  and 
called  himself  the  Napoleon  of  Wall  street.  He 
really  believed  that  he  directed  the  movement,  and 
while  the  street  outside  imagined  that  he  and  Gould 
were  one  family,  and  that  his  purchases  were  made 
for  the  clique,  Gould  was  silently  flinging  away  his 
gold  at  any  price  he  could  get  for  it. 

"Whether  Fisk  really  expected  to  carry  out  his 
contract,  and  force  the  bears  to  settle  or  not,  is 
doubtful,  but  the  evidence  seems  to  show  that  he 
was  in  earnest  and  felt  sure  of  success.  His  orders 
were  unlimited.  'Put  it  up  to  150,'  was  one  which  he 
sent  to  the  gold-room.  Gold  rose  to  150.  At  length 
the  bid  was  made — *i6o  for  any  part  of  five  millions,' 
— '162  for  five  millions.'  No  answer  was  made  and 
the  offer  was  repeated — '162  for  any  part  of  five 
millions.'  A  voice  replied,  'Sold  one  million  at  62.' 
The  bubble  suddenly  burst,  and  within  fifteen 
minutes,  amid  an  excitement  without  parallel  even 
in  the  wildest  excitements  of  the  war,  the  clique 
workers  were  literally  swept  away  and  left  struggl- 
ing by  themselves,  bidding  still  160  for  gold  in  millions 
which  no  one  would  any  longer  take  their  word  for, 
while  the  premium  sank  rapidly  to  13^.  A  moment 
later  the  telegraph  brought  the  government  order 
from  Washington  to  sell,  and  the  result  was  no 
longer  possible  to  dispute.    Mr.  Fisk  had  gone  too 


CULMINATION  OF  CONSPIRACY. 


127 


far,  while  Mr.  Gould  had  secretly  weakened  the 
ground  under  his  feet. 

"Gould,  however,  was  saved  His  fifty  millions 
were  sold;  and  although  no  one  yet  knows  what  his 
gains  or  losses  may  have  been,  his  firm  was  now 
able  to  meet  its  contracts  and  protect  its  brokers. 
Fisk  was  in  a  very  different  situation.  So  soon  as  it 
became  evident  that  his  brokers  would  be  unable  to 
carry  out  their  contracts,  every  one  who  had  sold  gold 
to  them  turned  in  wrath  to  Fisk's  office.  Fortunately 
for  him  it  was  protected  by  armed  men  whom  he 
had  brought  with  him  from  his  castle  of  Erie;  but 
nevertheless  the  excitement  was  so  great  that  both 
Mr.  Fisk  and  Mr.  Gould  thought  it  best  to  retire  as 
rapidly  as  possible  to  a  back  entrance  leading  into 
another  street,  and  seek  the  protection  of  the 
opera  house.  There  nothing  but  an  army  could  dis- 
turb them;  no  civil  mandate  was  likely  to  be  served 
without  their  permission  within  these  walls,  and  few 
men  would  care  to  face  Fisk's  ruffians  in  order  to 
force  an  entrance. 

"The  subsequent  winding  up  of  this  famous  conspir- 
acy may  be  stated  in  few  words.  But  no  account  could 
possibly  be  complete  which  failed  to  reproduce  in 
full  the  story  of  Mr.  Fisk's  last  interview  with  Mr. 
Corbin,  as  told  by  Fisk  himself.  T  went  down  to 
the  neighborhood  of  Wall  street  Friday  morning, 
and  the  history  of  that  morning  you  know.  When  I 
got  back  to  our  office,  you  can  imagine  I  was  in  no 
enviable  state  of  mind,  and  the  moment  I  got  up 
street  that  afternoon  I  started  right  around  to  old 


128  CULMINATION  OF  CONSPIRACY. 

Corbin's  to  rake  him  out.  I  went  into  the  room  and 
sent  word  that  Mr.  Fisk  w^anted  to  see  him  in  the 
dining-room.  I  was  too  mad  to  say  anything  civil, 
and  when  he  came  into  the  room,  said  I,  'You 
damned  old  scoundrel,  do  you  know  what  you  have 
done  here,  you  and  your  people?'  He  began  to 
wring  his  hands,  and  'Oh!'  he  says,  'this  is  a  horrible 
position.  Are  you  ruined?'  I  said  I  didn't  know 
whether  I  was  or  not;  and  I  asked  him  again  if  he 
knew  what  had  happened?  He  had  been  crying, 
and  said  he  had  just  heard;  that  he  had  been  sure 
everything  was  all  right,  but  that  something  had  oc- 
curred entirely  different  from  what  he  had  anticipated. 
Said  I,  'That  don't  amount  to  anything;  we  know 
that  gold  ought  not  to  be  at  31,  and  that  it  would  not 
be  but  for  such  performances  as  you  have  had  this 
last  week;  you  know  damned  well  it  would  not  if 
you  had  not  failed.'  I  knew  that  somebody  had 
run  a  saw  right  into  us,  and  said  I,  'This  whole 
damned  thing  has  turned  out  just  as  I  told  you  it 
would.'  I  considered  the  whole  party  a  pack  of 
cowards,  and  I  expected  that  when  we  came  to  clear 
our  hands  they  would  sock  it  right  into  us.  I  said 
to  him,  'I  don't  know  whether  you  have  lied  or  not, 
and  I  don't  know^  what  ought  to  be  done  with  you.' 
He  was  on  the  other  side  of  the  table,  weeping  and 
wailing,  and  I  was  gnashing  my  teeth.  'Now,'  he 
says,  'you  must  quiet  yourself.'  I  told  him  I  didn't 
want  to  be  quiet.  I  had  no  desire  to  ever  be  quiet 
again,  and  probably  never  should  be  quiet  again. 
He  says,  'But,  my  dear  sir,  you  will  lose  your  reason.' 


CULMINATION  OF  CONSPIRACY. 


129 


Says  I,  'Speyers'  (a  broker  employed  by  him  that 
day)  'has  already  lost  his  reason;  reason  has  gone 
out  of  everybody  but  me.'  I  continued,  'Now  what 
are  you  going  to  do?  You  have  got  us  into  this 
thing,  and  what  are  you  going  to  do  to  get  out  of  it?' 
He  says,  'I  don't  know.  I  will  go  and  get  my  wife.' 
I  said,  'Get  her  down  here.'  The  soft  talk  was  all 
over.  He  went  up  stairs  and  they  returned,  tottling 
into  the  room,  looking  older  than  Stephen  Hopkins. 
His  wife  and  he  both  looked  like  death.  He  was 
tottling  just  like  that.  (Illustrated  by  a  trembling 
movement  of  the  body.)  'I  have  never  seen  him 
from  that  day  to  this.' 

"This  is  sworn  evidence  before  a  committee  of 
Congress,  and  its  humor  is  perhaps  the  more  con- 
spicuous because  there  is  every  reason  to  believe 
that  there  is  not  a  word  of  truth  in  the  story  from 
beginning  to  end.  No  such  interview  ever  occurred, 
except  in  the  unconfined  apartments  of  Mr.  Fisk's 
imagination.  His  own  previous  statements  make  it 
certain  that  he  was  not  at  Corbin's  house  at  all  that 
day,  and  that  Corbin  did  come  to  the  Erie  offices 
that  evening  and  again  the  next  morning.  Corbin 
himself  denies  the  truth  of  the  account  without 
limitation;  and  adds  that  when  he  entered  the  Erie 
offices  the  next  morning,  Fisk  was  there.  T  asked 
him  how  Mr.  Gould  felt  after  the  great  calamity  of 
the  day  before.'  He  remarked,  'Oh,  he  has  no  cour- 
age at  all.  He  has  sunk  right  down.  There  is 
nothing  left  of  him  but  a  heap  of  clothes  and  a  pair 
of  eyes.'    The  internal  evidence  of  truth  in  this 


130  CULMINATION  OF  CONSPIRACY. 


anecdote  would  support  Mr.  Corbin  against  the 
world. 

"In  regard  to  Mr.  Gould,  Fisk's  graphic  descrip- 
tion was  probably  again  inaccurate.  Undoubtedly 
the  noise  and  scandal  of  the  moment  were  extreme- 
ly unpleasant  to  this  silent  and  impenetrable  in- 
triguer. The  city  was  in  a  ferment,  and  the  whole 
country  pointing  at  him  with  wrath.  The  machinery 
of  the  gold  exchange  had  broken  down,  and  he 
alone  could  extricate  the  business  community  from 
the  pressing  danger  of  a  general  panic.  He  had 
saved  himself,  it  is  true;  but  in  a  manner  which 
could  not  have  been  to  his  taste.  Yet  his  course 
from  this  point  must  have  been  almost  self-evident 
to  his  mind,  and  there  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that 
he  hesitated." 

"His  own  contracts  were  all  fulfilled.  Fisk's 
contracts  all  except  one,  in  respect  to  which  the 
broker  was  able  to  compel  a  settlement,  were  re- 
pudiated. Gould  probably  suggested  to  Fisk  that 
it  was  better  to  let  Belden  fail,  and  to  settle  a  hand- 
some fortune  on  him  than  to  sacrifice  something 
more  than  $5,000,000  in  sustaining  him.  Fisk,  there- 
fore, threw  Belden  over,  and  swore  that  he  had 
acted  only  under  Belden's  order.  One  of  the  first 
acts  of  the  Erie  gentlemen  after  the  crisis  was  to 
summon  their  lawyers  and  set  in  action  their  judicial 
powers.  The  object  was  to  prevent  the  panic- 
stricken  brokers  from  using  legal  process  to  force 
settlements  and  to  render  the  entanglement  inex- 
tricable.    Messrs.  Field  &  Shearman   came  and 


CULMINATION  OF  CONSPIRACY. 


instantly  prepared  a  considerable  number  of  injunc- 
tions, which  were  sent  to  their  judges,  signed  at 
once,  and  immediately  served.  Gould  then  was  able 
to  dictate  the  terms  of  settlement,  and  after  a  week 
of  complete  paralysis,  Broad  street  began  at  last  to 
show  signs  of  returning  life. 

'*  The  fate  of  the  conspirators  was  not  severe. 
Mr.  Corbin  went  to  Washington,  where  he  was 
snubbed  by  the  President,  and  at  once  disappeared 
from  public  view,  only  coming  to  light  again  before 
the  congressional  committee.  General  Butterfield, 
whose  share  in  the  transaction  is  least  understood, 
was  permitted  to  resign  his  office  without  any  inves- 
tigation. Speculation  for  the  next  six  months  was 
at  an  end.  Every  person  involved  in  the  affair 
seemed  to  have  lost  money,  and  dozens  of  brokers 
were  swept  from  the  street.  But  Mr.  Jay  Gould  and 
Mr.  James  Fisk,  Jr.,  continued  to  reign  over  Erie, 
and  no  one  can  say  that  their  power  or  their  credit 
was  sensibly  diminished  by  a  shock  which,  for  the 
time,  prostrated  all  the  interests  of  the  country." 


9 


CHAPTER  X. 


GOULD  AND  THE  WESTERN  RAILWAY  SYSTEMS. 

AFTER  Mr.  Gould  was  ousted  from  Erie,  he 
entered  into  that  career  of  acquisition  which 
made  him  the  master  of  several  of  the  most  import- 
ant railroads  in  the  United  States,  of  the  Yale  sys- 
tem of  telegraph  and  of  the  chief  line  of  transporta- 
tion in  New  York  city.  In  nearly  all  his  railroad 
operations  he  repeated,  to  a  greater  or  less  extent, 
his  career  in  Erie.  His  scheme  was  to  buy  up  cheap 
and  bankrupt  roads,  reorganize  them,  issue  new  stock 
and  bonds,  unload  on  some  other  road,  or  else,  by 
the  payment  of  dividends,  get  the  public  interested 
in  the  property  and  sell  at  big  profits.  Or  he  would 
reverse  the  operation  and  take  a  great  property  and 
squeeze  it  like  a  lemon.  His  career  in  Union  Pacific 
comes  naturally  first  in  order.  For  ten  years  he  was 
master  of  this  great  system  which,  with  the  Central 
Pacific,  constitutes  the  first  and  most  important  of 
the  lines  leading  to  the  Pacific  coast.  His  record  in 
this  road  has  been  a  matter  of  official  investigation, 
and  this  part  of  Mr.  Gould's  history,  as  well  as  that 
of  the  Erie  and  Black  Friday  periods,  is  based  on 
sworn  testimony.  But  first,  it  is  but  fair  that  Mr. 
Gould's  own  account  of  his  connection  with  Union 
Pacific,  as  stated  in  his  testimony  before  the  Senate 

132 


(;OUl.I>  HKKOKK    llIK  (JC)N(;KESM(  )N  A  I.  (X)MMITTKE. 


GOULD  AND  THE  WESTERN  RAILWAYS.  1 33 


Committee  on  Labor  and  Education,  should  be  given. 
Having  omitted  all  mention  of  Erie  Mr.  Gould 
said: 

*'I  then  went  into  the  Union  Pacific  road.  I  met 
Horace  Clark  and  Augustus  Schell  out  West,  and 
they  gave  me  so  good  an  account  of  the  road  that  I 
concluded  I  would  buy  in  it.  I  telegraphed  to  New 
York  an  order  to  buy  at  a  certain  price.  When  Mr. 
Clark  got  home  I.e  was  taken  ill,  and  as  soon  as  his 
brokers  learned  that  his  illness  was  to  be  fatal,  they 
sold  out  his  stock.  That  broke  the  market  and  filled 
orders  which  I  had  sent  at  a  price  lower  than  I  ever 
expected.  When  I  got  home  I  found  myself  the 
owner  of  a  large  amount  of  this  property,  and  at 
once  inquired  into  its  condition.  I  learned  that  it 
was  saddled  with  a  large  floating  debt,  and  that 
there  were  ten  million  dollars  of  bonds  coming  due 
within  a  month.  It  was  in  rather  a  blue  condition. 
The  directors  were  consulting  who  should  be  the 
receiver.  I  made  up  my  mind  that  I  would  carry  it 
through,  and  I  told  them  that  if  they  would  furnish 
half  of  the  money  to  pay  the  debt,  I  would  furnish  the 
other  half.  The  stock  went  down  to  15.  It  was  a 
large  loss,  but  still  I  kept  right  on  buying,  so  when 
the  turn  came  there  did  not  seem  to  be  any  top  to  it. 
It  went  up  to  75,  and  I  immediately  went  to  work  to 
bring  the  road  up.  I  went  out  over  it,  started  coal 
mines,  and  to  the  surprise  of  everybody  it  soon  be- 
gan to  pay  dividends  and  has  never  passed  a  divi- 
dend since. 

"Well,"  continued  Mr.  Gould,  "when  this  road  be- 


134  GOULD  AND  THE  WESTERN  RAILWAYS. 


gan  to  be  a  financial  success  and  developed  other 
ways  there  arose  quite  a  clamor,  and  it  was  said  to 
be  Jay  Gould's  road,  as  though  it  were  a  dangerous 
thing  to  have  one  man  control  a  road.  I  thought 
that  it  was  better  to  bow  to  public  opinion,  so  I  took 
the  opportunity  when  I  could  to  place  the  stock  in 
the  hands  of  investors.  In  the  course  of  a  very  few 
months,  instead  of  owning  control  of  the  road  I  was 
entirely  out  of  it,  and  the  stock  was  20  per  cent, 
higher  than  I  had  sold  it  for.  Instead  of  being 
thirty  or  forty  stockholders,  there  were  between  six 
and  seven  thousand,  representing  the  savings  of 
widows  and  orphans.  There  were  also  a  great  many 
lady  stockholders.  That  was  about  four  years  ago, 
after  Congress  enacted  very  harsh  legislation,  after 
they  had  broken  the  bargain  they  had  made  to  get 
the  road  through  in  its  early  stages." 

"You  refer  to  the  Thurman  act?"  asked  the  chair- 
man. 

"Yes,  and  that  closed  my  connection  with  the 
Union  Pacific  road." 

This  is  a  very  beautiful  picture  and  it  makes  out 
Mr.  Gould  to  be  a  most  public-spirited  and  generous 
man — one  ready  to  sacrifice  his  own  interests  in 
obedience  to  the  demand  of  public  opinion.  But, 
having  looked  on  this  picture,  look  upon  that 
drawn  by  the  Pacific  Railroad  Commission,  ap- 
pointed by  President  Cleveland  in  1887,  and  com- 
posed of  ex-Gov.  Pattison,  of  Pennsylvania;  E.  Ellery 
Anderson,  of  New  York,  and  David  Littler,  of  Illi- 
nois.   The  commission  made  two  reports,  agreeing 


GOULD  AND  THE  WESTERN  RAILWAYS 


substantially,  only  that  of  ex-Gov.  Pattison  was  more 
severe  in  its  conclusions. 

In  the  majority  report,  by  Messrs.  Anderson  and 
Littler,  the  purchase  of  a  controlling  interest  by  Jay 
Gould  in  1873,  the  subsequent  increase  in  the  cap- 
ital stock  to  200,000  shares,  the  inauguration  of  the 
policy  of  constructing  branch  lines  in  1877  ^^e 
commencement  of  the  action  by  the  United  States 
against  the  directors  of  the  Union  Pacific  for  misap- 
propriating the  assets  of  the  company  were  detailed 
and  the  report  went  on  to  say:  **It  appears  from  the 
minutes  of  the  company  that  while  this  litigation 
was  pending  certain  proceedings  were  taken  by  the 
directors,  whereby  by  their  own  acts  and  votes  they 
undertook  to  release  themselves  from  any  obliga- 
tions or  liabilities  to  the  company."  The  Kansas 
Pacific's  financial  operations  from  1864  to  1880  were 
also  taken  up  and  the  circumstances  leading  up  to 
its  consolidation  in  the  Union  Pacific  system  were 
detailed  at  great  length.  The  acquisition  by  Jay 
Gould  in  1877,  at  nominal  figures,  of  several  millions 
of  securities  of  the  Kansas  Pacific  was  spoken  of, 
and  the  reorganization  of  that  company  under  the 
control  of  Gould  was  detailed  and  the  methods 
severely  condemned.  The  effect  of  the  consolida- 
tion was  to  increase  the  stock  of  the  Union  Pacific 
from  ;^38,000,ooo  to  $50,000,000,  and  the  bonded  in- 
debtedness from  $88,000,000  to  $126,000,000,  and  the 
other  indebtedness  from  $4,000,000  to  nearly  $I0,- 
000,000.  It  was  declared  that  "the  three  years  fol- 
lowing the  consolidation  were  years  of  great  busi- 


136  GOULD  AND  THE  WESTERN  RAILWAYS. 


ness  activity,  and  the  receipts  of  the  Union  Pacific 
for  1880,  1881,  1882  and  1883  were  largely  increased," 
but  "in  the  face  of  a  very  large  and  apparently 
profitable  business"  the  company  found  itself  early  in 
1884  on  the  verge  of  bankruptcy."  Competition,  the 
burden  of  its  fixed  charges,  the  extravagant  sums 
paid  for  branch  railroads  of  little  or  no  earning 
power  bought  by  Mr.  Gould,  and  the  "lavish  and 
reckless  distribution  of  the  assets  of  the  company  in 
dividends,  all  combined  to  produce  this  result." 
After  stating  that  Gould's  connection  with  the  road 
ceased  in  1883,  the  report  says:  "It  is  with  a  sense 
of  great  relief  that  the  commission  turns  from  the 
history  of  this  company  from  1873  to  1883  [the  pe- 
riod of  Goulci's  control — Ed.]  to  the  conservative, 
energetic  and  intelligent  management  that  has  char- 
acterized the  management  from  the  opening  of  1884 
to  the  present  time." 

Ex-Gov.  Pattison,  in  his  report,  said: 
"The  Union  Pacific  company  has  received  $iy6,- 
294,793.53  in  surplus  earnings  and  land  sales  during 
eighteen  years,  and  if  its  stock  had  been  fully  paid, 
as  Congress  required  that  it  should  be  and  as  its  offi- 
cers certified  under  oath  that  it  was,  nearly  all  of 
that  money  would  be  applicable  to-day  to  the  pay- 
ment of  the  government  debt.  The  company  has 
paid  out  $28,650,770  in  dividends,  and  $82,742,850  in 
interest  on  bonds,  nearl}^  all  of  which  were  distribu- 
ted to  shareholders  v.ithout  consideration.  It  has 
sunk  over  $10,000,000  in  Denver,  South  Park  and 
Pacific;  it  paid  out  $10,000,000  to  Jay  Gould  and  his 


GOULD  AND  THE  WESTERN  RAILWAYS.  1 37 


associates  for  branch  lines  and  other  investments 
which  were  worthless,  and  which  were  unloaded 
upon  the  Union  Pacific  because  of  the  faithlessness 
of  the  management  of  the  company.  The  gross 
mismanagement  of  the  Union  Pacific  and  the  other 
Pacific  railroads  has  injured  the  credit  of  foreign 
investors  to  such  an  extent  that  hundreds  of  millions 
of  dollars,  which  otherwise  would  have  been  sent 
here  for  investment  and  aided  in  the  development 
of  the  country,  have  been  locked  up  abroad." 

Every  line  of  this  indictment  is  directed  at 
Gould.  Yet  Charles  Francis  Adams,  the  author  of 
"A  Chapter  in  Erie,"  and  who  became  president 
of  the  Union  Pacific  about  the  time  Gould  retired, 
told  the  commission  that  he  believed  from  careful 
scrutiny  that  Mr.  Gould  had  always  been  more  than 
fair  to  the  company.  But  the  commission,  with  all 
the  facts  before  it,  rejected  his  view  of  the  case. 

When  Mr.  Gould  secured  possession  of  the  Union 
Pacific,  Sidney  Dillon  was  president  of  it,  and  they 
with  other  large  stockholders  agreed  upon  a  plan  to 
fund  the  floating  debt  in  bonds,  of  which  Mr.  Gould 
took  $1,000,000.  Mr.  Gould  remained  in  practical 
control  of  the  property  until  about  1880,  when  public 
opinion  clamored  for  a  change,  and  as  Mr.  Gould 
said  to  one  of  the  numerous  investigating  commit- 
tees before  which  he  was  called  upon  during  his  busy 
life  to  testify:  *T  bowed  to  public  opinion.  I  let 
outside  parties  in  and  soon,  instead  of  thirty  or  forty 
stockholders,  there  were  6,000  or  7,000."  Mr.  Charles 
Francis  Adams  succeeded  Sidney  Dillon  as  presi^ 


138  GOULD  AND  THE  WESTERN  RAILWAYS. 


dent,  and  in  a  short  time  an  astonished  public  beheld 
the  spectacle  of  the  author  of  the  scathing  "Chapter 
of  Erie"  standing  sponsor  for  the  man  he  had  de- 
nounced. Mr.  Gould  managed  to  persuade  Mr. 
Adams  to  view  the  future  of  Union  Pacific  through 
his  (Gould's)  eyes,  and  in  consequence  Mr.  Adams 
unconsciously  assisted  Mr.  Gould  in  disposing  of 
large  blocks  of  the  stock  to  good  advantage.  In 
1891  Mr.  Gould  again  got  control  of  the  Union 
Pacific  road,  owing  to  peculiar  Wall  street  condi- 
tions, and  he  calmly  turned  Mr.  Adams  out  of  the 
presidency  and  put  Sidney  Dillon  back  there. 

"In  1876  Mr.  Gould  began  buying  Kansas  Pacific 
stock  because  it  was  cheap.  Atthat  time  stock  specu- 
lators did  not  regard  the  stock  as  being  worth  any- 
thing. Mr.  Gould,  however,  was  lookingaway  ahead, 
and  he  bought  largely  of  Denver  Pacific  securities 
and  stock  and  bonds  of  the  St.  Joe  and  Western,  the 
Kansas  Central,  and  Central  Branch  roads.  All  of 
these  securities  he'got  at  a  very  low  price,  and  he 
realized  an  enormous  profit  when  they  were  all  turned 
in  under  the  famous  Union  Pacific  consolidation 
scheme  in  1880.  For  his  Central  Branch  stock  alone 
he  received  S239  per  share.  Mr.  Gould  was  one  of 
the  first  to  suggest  the  consolidation  of  the  Kansas 
Pacific  and  its  subsidiary  roads  with  the  Union  Pacific. 
He  employed  Solon  Humphreys  and  Gen.  Dodge  to 
go  West,  look  over  the  situation,  and  make  a  report 
on  the  practicability  of  the  consolidation. 

In  1879  ^  consolidated  mortgage  was  issued  by 
the  Kansas  Pacific  to  wipe  out  the  innumerable  se- 


GOULD  AND  THE  WESTERN  RAILWAYS.  1 39 


curities  bearing  different  rates  of  interest  which 
were  then  burdening  the  road.  Jay  Gould  and  Rus- 
sel  Sage  were  then  directors  of  both  the  Union  and 
the  Kansas  Pacific  roads,  and  they  were  made  trustees 
of  this  mortgage.  Among  the  assets  covered  by 
this  mortgage  were  30,000  shares  of  the  Denver  Pa- 
cific railroad,  then  of  little  value,  but  which,  under 
the  plan  of  consolidation  which  Gould  was  then 
maturing,  would  become  of  great  value.  Sidney 
Dillon,  who  was  associated  with  Gould  and  Sage  in 
all  three  roads,  asked  them  to  release  these  stocks 
from  the  lien  of  the  mortgage.  Gould  and  Sage  sat 
down  at  the  same  desk  at  which  Dillon  had  written 
this  modest  request,  and  wrote  suggesting  that  an 
action  should  be  brought  against  them  in  the  courts 
for  the  release  of  the  stock.  The  action  was  imme- 
diately brought  before  Judge  Donohue,  to  which 
Gould  and  Sage  made  no  defense.  Dillon  testified 
that  the  stock  was  worth  only  ;$200,ooo  or  ^300,000. 
The  order  was  given,  the  stock  released,  and  the  day 
after  the  consolidation  was  effected  which  made  the 
stock  worth  its  face  value,  or  ^3,000,000. 

Stoop  &  Rens,  of  Amsterdam,  claiming  to  be 
holders  of  the  bonds,  brought  the  charge  against 
Mr.  Gould  and  Mr.  Sage  that  they  had,  without  con- 
sulting with  the  other  bondholders,  appropriated  to 
themselves  the  trust  asset  of  $3,000,000. 

This  revelation  was  made  October  17,  1877, 
and  an  effort  was  made  to  secure  the  indict- 
ment of  Messrs.  Sage  and  Gould.  It  was  a  matter 
which  at  once  attracted  the  widest  interest.  District 


140  GOULD  AND  THE  WESTERN  RAILWAYS. 


Attorney  Martine  was  asked  to  send  the  complaints 
before  the  Grand  Jury,  but  pending  any  action  on 
his  part,  Mr.  Gould  started  on  a  trip  abroad  on  his 
yacht  Atalanta.  Then  followed  probably  the  longest 
rest  and  only  complete  rest  Jay  Gould  ever  enjoyed 
from  the  time  he  took  up  and  pushed  through  the 
abandoned  survey  of  Ulster  county  in  1852. 

He  went  first  to  Gibraltar,  then  to  Marseilles, 
cruised  along  the  Mediterranean,  going  to  Egypt 
and  Italy.  While  he  was  absent  the  legal  war 
against  him  at  home  continued.  His  enemies  in 
the  Kansas  Pacific  still  clamored  for  his  indictment; 
the  commissioners  appointed  by  President  Cleve- 
land to  investigate  the  affairs  of  the  Pacific  railroad? 
made  a  thundering  report  against  the  management 
of  those  corporations,  showing  that  they  had  re- 
ceived in  aid  from  the  government  the  sum  of 
^447,000,000.  Congressman  Anderson  offered  a 
resolution  in  the  House  of  Representatives  recom- 
mending that  suit  be  begun  against  Mr.  Gould  and 
others  to  enforce  the  Thurman  act. 

In  March,  1888,  the  Grand  Jury  failed  to  indict, 
and  on  that  very  day  Mr.  Gould  was  complacently 
strolling  about  the  streets  of  Algiers.  Three  weeks 
later  Mr.  Gould  landed  from  his  yacht  at  Jackson- 
ville, Fla.,  and  in  a  very  short  time  he  was  at  his 
desk  looking  after  his  great  financial  interests  and 
manipulating  the  stock  market. 

On  his  return  he  attacked  his  prosecutors  with  a 
virulence  which  he  had  never  displayed  before,  and 
filled  the  columns  of  the  newspapers  with  interviews. 


GOULD  AND  THE  WESTERN  RAILWAYS.  I4I 


In  one  of  these  he  declared  that  the  attack  upon  him 
was  the  result  of  a  conspiracy  and  blackmail,  and 
that  the  powers  behind  the  criminal  proceedings 
were  "a  newspaper"  (meaning  the  Herald),  "a  cable 
company"  (referring  to  the  Mackey-Bennet  Com- 
pany), "and  a  woman."  The  latter  was  understood 
to  be  the  wife  of  an  officer  of  one  of  Mr.  Gould's 
railroads  who  had  brought  suit  for  divorce.  This 
bringing  of  a  woman  into  the  case  created  a  great 
sensation.  A  few  days  later  Gould  made  a  bitter 
personal  attack  on  James  Gordon  Bennet,  of  the 
Herald,  calling  in  question  his  personal  and  social 
character,  and  reciting  incidents  unfit  for  publica- 
tion. This  was  the  first  time  in' his  life  that  Gould 
appeared  to  be  thoroughly  "rattled;"  the  first  time 
that  he  let  down  the  curtain  of  mystery  with  which 
he  had  so  long  covered  himself,  and  the  first  time 
that  he  broke  that  silence  which  was  his  best 
weapon. 

This  is  a  good  place  to  quote  from  Gould's  testi- 
mony before  the  Pacific  Railroad  Commission,  as  it 
gives  an  insight  into  his  theory  of  railroad  opera- 
tions. 

•T  consider,"  he  said,  "the  past  a  good  thing  to 
judge  a  road  by,  but  the  future  more.  I  have  been 
all  my  life  dealing  in  railroads;  that  is,  since  before 
I  came  of  age.  I  always  bought  on  the  future; 
that's  how  I  made  my  money.  The  bonds  on  the 
first  road  I  bought  were  down  to  ten  cents.  I  built 
up  the  road  and  sold  them  for  I125.  That's  the  rea- 
son I  went  into  the  Kansas  Pacific  and  the  Union 


142  GOULD  AND  THE  WESTERN  RAILWAYS. 


Pacific.  But  I  saw  the  Kansas  Pacific  was  going  to 
develop  faster  than  the  Union  Pacific." 

Mr.  Gould's  railroad  operations  were  entirely  too 
numerous  to  be  followed  in  all  their  details,  espe- 
cially as  enough  has  already  been  given  to  indicate 
the  character  of  his  enterprises.  But  no  life  of  Mr. 
Gould  would  be  complete  without  an  account  of  his 
connection  with  Wabash.  On  this  road,  however, 
he  simply  repeated,  though  to  a  less  degree,  his 
tactics  in  Erie,  and  the  result  is  a  corporation  al- 
most hopelessly  burdened  with  enormous  obliga- 
tions. 

In  the  North  American  Review  of  February,  1888, 
will  be  found  a  full  history  of  this  unfortunate  road. 
The  writer  says  that  **Mr.  Gould  remains  the  leading 
figure  in  the  chapter  of  Wabash  as  he  was  of  Erie." 
There  is,  he  says,  a  "relative  disappearance  of  the 
special  forms  of  judicial  usurpation  and  misconduct 
which  lent  such  a  lurid  aspect  to  Mr.  Adams'  story, 
and  in  their  place  will  be  noted  one  sweeping  judi- 
cial act  followed  by  two  or  three  supplementary  acts 
which  accomplished  the  designs  of  the  actors  with 
complete  effectiveness."  Gould  gained  control  of 
the  road  in  1879  and  became  president  in  1881.  The 
writer  of  the  Review  article  sums  up  the  history  of 
Wabash  as  follows: 

"The  Wabash  system  arose  from  the  absorption 
and  consolidation  of  sixty-eight  separate  original 
corporations;  when  thus  consolidated  the  system 
owned  and  controlled  in  1883  about  4,814  miles  of 
railroad  in  the  six  states  of  Ohio,  Michigan,  Indiana, 


GOULD  AND  THE  WESTERN  RAILWAYS.  I43 


Illinois,  Missouri  and  Iowa;  its  capital  stock  was  in- 
creased between  1877  and  1883  from  ;^40,ooo,ooo  to 
$50,174,700;  its  funded  or  mortgaged  debt  was  in- 
creased during  the  same  period  from  $20,311,570.60 
to  $76,394,075;  three  quarterly  'dividends'  were  paid 
on  the  entire  preferred  stock  in  1881— the  year  after 
the  issue  of  the  general  mortgage  in  1880 — amount- 
ing to  $1,036,529;  within  two  years  and  a  half  after 
these  'dividends'  the  company  made  default  on  the 
interest  of  all  its  mortgaged  debt;  in  May,  1884,  the 
entire  property  was,  on  the  application  of  the  debtor 
company  alone,  secretly  placed  in  the  hands  of 
Humphreys  and  Tutt,  two  of  its  former  directors  and 
officers,  men  without  any  special  qualifications  for 
railroad  management,  and  who  had  been  part  of  the 
directorate  which  had  brought  the  system  to,  bank- 
ruptcy; immediately  after  the  appointment  of  Hum- 
phreys and  Tutt,  the  Circuit  Court  of  the  eastern 
district  of  Missouri  directed  the  issue  of  $2,300,000 
of  receiver's  obligations  to  'protect'  the  indorsements 
of  Wabash  notes  by  Gould,  Dillon,  Sage  and  Hum- 
phreys; the  same  court,  six  days  later,  directed  the 
further  issue  of  $2,ooo,0(3o  of  receivers'  certificates — 
made  a  first  lien  on  all  the  Wabash  property— to  pay 
so-called  Wabash  indebtedness,  which  by  the  terms 
of  its  lease  to  the  Iron  Mountain,  which  had  been, 
in  turn,  leased  to  the  Missouri  Pacific,  was  the  in- 
debtedness of  the  Missouri  Pacific;  as  the  result  of 
two  years  and  a  half  of  this  receivership,  there  was 
paid  out  of  the  receivers'  earnings,  on  account  of 
liabilities  incurred  prior  to  the  receivership,  $3,260,- 


144  GOULD  AND  THE  WESTERN  RAILWAYS. 


519.23,  leaving  ;^500,ooo  still  due;  as  the  grand  result 
of  the  receivership  of  Humphreys  and  Tutt,  interest 
has  accrued  to  the  amount  of  $4,390,000,  all  due  and 
unpaid,  and  of  receivers'  obligations,  $3,200,000,  a 
total  during  two  years  and  a  half  of  $7,590,000,  with 
$290,000  of  cash  in  hand.  The  property  being  sold 
to  a  purchasing  committee,  of  which  the  chairman, 
Joy,  was  a  former  Wabash  director,  and  another 
member,  Ashley,  was  the  secretary  of  the  receivers, 
a  demand  was  made  of  the  prior  mortgage  bond- 
holders to  fund  into  new  Wabash  bonds  their  past 
due  interest  and  to  reduce  the  interest  on  their  bonds 
for  the  future  from  6  and  7  per  cent,  to  5  per  cent. 
Upon  application  of  prior  mortgage  bondholders 
the  United  States  Circuit  Court  at  Chicago  removed 
Humphreys  and  Tutt  for  misconduct  as  receivers 
and  appointed  a  new  and  separate  receiver  for  the 
Wabash  lines  east  of  the  Mississippi  river." 

This  removal  was  upon  order  of  Judge  Gresham, 
who  has  made  such  a  high  reputation  as  a  judge 
who  can  be  depended  upon  not  to  be  easily  influ- 
enced in  favor  of  corporations.  This  order  was  called 
at  the  time  "one  of  the  bravest  acts  in  the  history  of 
justice."  On  rendering  decision  he  spoke  in  terms 
of  great  severity  of  the  managers  and  the  Gould 
receivers,  and  appointed  in  place  of  the  latter  Judge 
Cooley,  who  was  afterward  made  railroad  commis- 
sioner by  President  Cleveland.  In  commenting  on 
this  decision,  Gould  defended  himself  by  attacking 
Gresham,  who  he  declared  was  suffering  from  a  severe 
attack  of  "the  presidential  fever." 


GOULD  AND  THE  WESTERN  RAILWAYS.  1 45 


The  Gould  purchase  of  the  Missouri  Pacific  rail- 
way has  a  refreshing  novelty  in  it  on  account  of  the 
manner  in  which  it  was  bought.  The  road  was 
owned  in  1880  by  Commodore  Garrison,  who  was 
not  friendly  to  Mr.  Gould.  The  latter  sent  Russell 
Sage  to  find  out  how  much  the  commodore  would 
take  for  his  interest  in  the  Missouri  Pacific.  The 
commodore  s^d  that  $2,000,000  would  be  about  right. 
Sage  offered  $1,500,000  and  Garrison  shook  his  head 
brusquely.  The  next  day  Sage  returned  and  offered 
to  close  the  bargain  at  $2,000,000.  "No,"  said  the 
commodore,  "  the  price  has  advanced  to  $2,800,000." 

"  Pooh,  pooh!"  said  Sage,  and  he  went  back  and 
reported  to  Mr.  Gould.  The  next  day  Gould  went  him- 
self and  told  Garrison  that  he  would  take  his  stock 
at  $2,800,000.  The  commodore  replied  that  the  stock 
had  advanced  in  price  to  $3,800,000,  and  it  would 
continue  to  go  up  $1,000,000. a  day.  Gould  closed 
the  bargain  on  the  spot,  giving  Garrison  his  check 
for  $3,8oOyOOO.  The  Missouri  Pacific  stock  sub- 
sequently became  very  much  depressed  in  the  stock 
market,  and  a  great  many  weak  stockholders  were 
obliged  to  let  go.  Gould  was  always  ready  to  buy. 
After  a  while  he  consolidated  the  Missouri  Pacific 
with  the  Iron  Mountain  and  the  International  and 
Great  Northern,  and  Missouri  Pacific  stock  went  up 
rapidly.  The  Iron  Mountain  was  a  first-class 
money-earning  road.  This  consolidation  gave  Mr. 
Gould  a  southwestern  railroad  system  of  more  than 
5,000  miles,  which  he  subsequently  extended  largely. 

Gould's  testimony  in  regard  to  this  portion  of 


146  GOULD  AND  THE  WESTERN  RAILWAYS. 


his  career,  before  the  Senate  committee,  was  as 
follows: 

"The  next  great  enterprise,  if  I  may  call  it  great, 
that  I  engaged  in  was  the  Missouri  Pacific.  I 
bought  it  one  day  of  Commodore  Garrison,  or  rather 
the  control  of  it.  I  had  a  very  short  negotiation 
with  him;  he  gave  me  his  price,  just  as  we  are  talk- 
ing here,  and  I  said:  'All  right;  I  will  take  it,'  and 
I  gave  him  a  check  for  it  that  day.  At  that  time  I 
did  not  care  about  the  money  made;  it  was  a  mere 
plaything  to  see  what  I  could  do.  I  had  passed  the 
point  where  I  cared  about  the  mere  making  of 
money.  It  was  more  to  show  that  I  could  make  a 
combination  and  make  it  a  success.  I  took  this 
road  and  began  developing  it,  bringing  in  other 
lines  which  should  be  tributary  to  it.  I  developed 
new  parts  of  the  country — opened  up  coal  mines, 
etc.,  and  continued  until,  I  think,  we  have  now  10,000 
miles  of  road. 

"When  I  took  the  property  it  was  earning  ^70,- 
000  a  week.  I  have  just  got  the  gross  earnings  for 
the  last  month,  and  they  amount  to  ;S5, 100,000,  and 
we  have  accomplished  that  result  by  developing  the 
country;  and  while  we  have  been  doing  this  we  have 
made  the  country  rich,  developing  coal  mines  and 
cattle-raising,  as  well  as  the  production  of  cotton. 
We  have  created  this  earning  power  by  developing 
the  system.  All  this  10,000  miles  is  fully  built.  The 
roads  pass  through  the  states  of  Ohio,  Illinois,  Mich- 
igan, Iowa,  Missouri,  Kansas,  Nebraska,  Arkansas, 


GOULD  AND  THE  WESTERN  RAILWAYS.  I47 


Texas,  Louisiana  and  the  Indian  Territory,  and  we 
go  into  Mexico." 

"Are  there  other  raih'oad  enterprises  that  you 
are  connected  with?" 

"  I  am  director  in  various  roads,  but  I  put  my 
whole  strength  into  this  system.  I  don't  like  to 
scatter  around." 

"What  you  do  you  do  well,  or  try  to?" 

"I  certainly  try  to  do  all  things  well." 

"What  other  business  enterprises  of  the  country 
have  you  now  or  formerly  had  connection  with?" 

"  I  am  a  director  in  the  Chicago  and  Northwest- 
ern road,  Chicago  and  Rock  Island,  Delaware, 
Lackawanna  and  Western,  New  York  and  New 
England  and  a  good  many  other  small  roads." 

Mr.  Gould's  Southwestern  system,  of  which  he 
speaks  in  terms  so  glowing,  was  composed  of  the 
Missouri  Pacific,  that  was  the  main  stem,  and  grafted 
onto  it  was  the  Wabash,  of  which  an  account  has 
already  been  given;  the  Missouri,  Kansas  and  Texas; 
the  St.  Louis  and  Iron  Mountain,  and  the  Texas 
Pacific.  The  directors  of  all  the  roads  were  sub- 
stantially the  same,  Mr.  Gould  being  the  president, 
and  his  son  George,  Russell  Sage,  A.  L.  Hopkins 
and  others  of  his  intimate  associates  being  the 
directors.  The  most  striking  feature  about  the 
management  of  these  roads  is  that  while  all  the  others 
were  driven  into  bankruptcy,  or  to  the  verge  of  it, 
the  Missouri  Pacific  was  made  a  big  dividend-pay- 
ing property.  Mr.  Gould  attributed  this  to  the  com- 
paratively small  indebtedness  of  the  Missouri  Pacific, 

10 


148  GOULD  AND  THE  WESTERN  RAILWAYS. 

making  it,  in  his  own  language,  ''the  snuggest  prop- 
erty on  the  continent;"  but  his  enemies  attributed 
the  fact  to  another  reason,  namely,  Mr.  Gould's  own 
management,  by  which  he  was  alleged  to  have 
starved  the  other  properties  to  feed  the  Missouri 
Pacific.  His  holdings  of  the  latter's  stock  were  im- 
mense, while  his  pecuniary  interest  in  the  others 
was  comparatively  small;  indeed,  he  held  but  a  few 
hundred  shares  of  Missouri,  Kansas  and  Texas, 
though  its  president.  His  purpose  was  evidently  to 
swell  the  earnings  of  the  Missouri  Pacific  to  such  an 
extent  that  he  could  declare  big  dividends  and  sell 
his  stock  at  high  figures.  He  succeeded  in  pushing 
the  price  up  to  112  in  May,  1887,  but  it  subsequently 
fell  to  70i<  in  March,  1888.  The  lack  of  public  con- 
fidence in  Gould's  railroad  methods  is  strikingly 
exhibited  in  the  fact  that  though  Missouri  Pacific 
paid  6  to  7  per  cent,  annual  dividends,  Gould  found  it 
almost  impossible  to  keep  the  price  at  par  except  by 
the  pegging  process,  while  other  equal  dividend- 
payers  brought  from  no  to  130  in  the  market  with- 
out manipulation.  The  same  fact  was  also  strikingly 
exhibited  in  Western  Union,  which  paid  dividends, 
but  sold  at  from  70  to  80. 

Finally  the  stockholders  of  the  Missouri,  Kansas 
and  Texas  became  indignant  at  the  destruction  of 
their  property.  Much  of  the  stock  was  held  abroad 
and  was  only  worth  ;^ 1 3  to  $15  per  share  of  ;^I00. 
They  engaged  E.  EUery  Anderson,  the  same  who 
had  been  a  member  of  the  Pacific  Railroad  Commis- 
sion, and  Simon  Sterne,  who  had  been  the  counsel 


GOULD  AND  THE  WESTERN  RAILWAYS.  149 


for  the  Hepburn  Committee,  to  represent  them, 
and  in  connection  with  such  Wall  street  men  as 
W.  L.  Bull,  shortly  after  elected  president  of  the 
Stock  Exchange,  they  hurled  the  Gould  management 
from  power.  They  publicly  charged  Mr.  Gould  with 
having  used  the  road  simply  as  a  feeder  to  the  Mis- 
souri Pacific.  Mr.  Gould  succeeded,  at  least  in  part, 
with  his  plans  in  regard  to  Missouri  Pacific,  and  is 
understood  to  have  marketed  a  large  block  of  his 
holdings  in  1888.  Shortly  after  that  the  road  re- 
duced its  dividend  and  had  to  borrow  money  to 
pay  it. 

One  of  the  most  memorable  events  connected 
with  Gould's  management  of  the  Missouri  Pacific 
was  the  great  Knights  of  Labor  strike  in  1885,  which 
disabled  the  road  for  a  long  time.  An  interesting 
feature  of  the  strike  was  a  Sunday  conference  at  Mr. 
Gould's  house  between  him  and  Genera:!  Master 
Workman  Powderly,  at  which  negotiations  for  a 
settlement  were  entered  into.  The  foremost  repre- 
sentatives of  capital  and  labor  thus  met  to  settle 
vital  questions  at  issue  affecting  the  wealth  of  the 
capitalists  and  the  livelihood  of  the  workingmen. 
Mr.  Gould  said  to  the  Senate  Committee  on  Labor 
and  Education: 

"I  have  been  all  my  life  a  laborer  or  an  employer 
of  laborers.  Strikes  come  from  various  causes,  but 
are  principally  brought  about  by  the  poorest  and, 
therefore,  the  dissatisfied  element.  The  best  workers 
generally  look  forward  to  advancement  in  the  ranks 
or  save  money  enough  to  go  into  business  on  their 


150  GOULD  AND  THE  WESTERN  RAILWAYS. 

own  account.  Though  there  may  be  few  advanced 
positions  to  be  filled,  there  is  a  large  number  of 
men  trying  to  get  them.  They  get  better  pay  here 
than  in  any  other  country,  and  that  is  why  they 
come  here.  My  idea  is  that  if  capital  and  labor  are 
let  alone  they  will  mutually  regulate  each  other. 
People  who  think  they  can  regulate  all  mankind  and 
get  wrong  ideas  which  they  believe  to  be  panaceas 
for  every  ill,  cause  much  trouble  to  both  employers 
and  employes  by  their  interference." 

To  the  Congressional  Committee  which  investi- 
gated the  Missouri  Pacific  strike  he  said:  "I  am  in 
favor  of  arbitration  as  an  easy  way  of  settling  differ- 
ences between  corporations  and  ther  employes." 


CHAPTER  XI. 


GOULD  AND  THE  TELEGRAPH  MONOPOLY. 

THE  manipulation  of  values  and  the  methods  of 
running  the  railroad  andtelegraph  systems  of  the 
United  States  effect  more  nearly  the  personal  inter- 
ests of  every  individual  than  do  any  of  the  other 
great  enterprises  of  the  country.  It  is  for  that  rea- 
son that  Jay  Gould's  actions  in  his  railroad  proper- 
ties and  his  telegraph  companies  are  such  an  impor- 
tant factor  of  interest  in  the  events  of  his  life. 

Mr.  Gould's  connection  with  the  Western  Union 
Telegraph  Company  began  in  the  early  part  of  1881. 
For  a  number  of  years,  with  the  aid  of  the  American 
Union  and  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  telegraph  com- 
panies, which  he  controlled,  he  was  able  to  advance 
and  depress  the  stock  of  the  Western  Union  at  will. 
He  was  simply  playing  a  great  game  with  his  larger 
rival  and  waiting  the  chance  when  he  would  take 
possession  and  unite  all  the  lines. 

One  example  of  Mr.  Gould's  finesse  in  connec- 
tion with  the  Western  Union  will  show  his  methods. 
By  1880  his  American  Union  company  had  become 
a  constant  menace  to  the  other  company.  Rates  to 
every  competing  point  had  been  cut,  and  his  lines 
reached  to  the  Pacific.  Western  Union  at  one  pe- 
riod was  up  to  116.  The  wires  of  the  Western  Union 

151 


152        GOULD  AND  THE  TELEGRAPH  MONOPOLY. 


were  taken  from  the  lines  of  the  Union  Pacific  and 
other  great  railroad  systems  controlled  by  Mr. 
Gould  and  those  of  the  American  Union  were  sub- 
stituted. The  stock  of  the  older  corporation  fell  to 
88.  It  was  said  at  the  time  that  Mr.  Gould  was 
short  30,000  shares  of  Western  Union,  and  if  that 
was  so  he  made  ^840,000. 

But  in  1881  Mr.  Gould  and  his  associates  had 
practically  secured  control  of  the  Western  Union. 
It  was  proposed  to  sell  and  transfer  the  entire  assets 
and  property  of  the  American  Union  and  the  Ameri- 
can and  Pacific  to  the  Western  Union  directors. 
Rufus  Hatch,  as  a  stockholder  of  the  American 
Union,  obtained  an  injunction  restraining  the  consol- 
idation, but  on  February  4,  1881,  Judge  Barrett  re- 
fused to  continue  the  injunction,  and  by  the  time  he 
had  concluded  his  opinion  the  papers  were  drawn 
up,  the  consolidation  was  ratified  by  the  directors  of 
the  three  companies,  and  almost  before  the  country 
knew  it  there  was  one  telegraph  company  where 
there  had  been  three  before. 

The  stock  of  the  Western  Union  Telegraph  Com- 
pany was  at  once  "watered"  ^40,000,000,  or  thirty- 
seven  per  cent,  and  Mr.  Gould  became  the  leading 
spirit  in  that  company,  directing  its  affairs  from  his 
offices,  which  were  in  that  building. 

Nothing  Mr.  Gould  ever  did  in  his  life  so  arrayed 
public  sentiment  against  him  as  this  creation  of  the 
telegraphic  monopoly.  Eventually  the  Western 
Union  acquired  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  telegraph, 
which  Robert  Garrett  was  glad  to  sell  in  order  to  get 


GOULD  AND  THE  TELEGRAPH  MONOPOLY. 


money  to  help  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  railroad  out 
of  the  difficulties  into  which  it  had  fallen. 

Repeated  efforts  were  made  by  the  stockholders 
of  t^e  American  Union  to  secure  the  interference  of 
the  attorney-generals  of  various  states,  but  the  con- 
solidation stood.  In  May,  1882,  the  Western  Union 
secured  control  of  all  the  European  cables,  and  no 
little  comment  was  aroused  soon  thereafter  when  it 
was  charged  that  Mr.  Gould  was  making  an  effort  to 
secure  control  of  the  New  York  Associated  Press, 
or,  at  least,  of  the  news  which  it  sent  out.  He  was 
reputed  to  control  at  that  time  three  of  the  seven 
newspapers  constituting  the  corporation,  and  some- 
thing of  a  sensation  was  caused  by  the  charge.  The 
Western  Union's  control  of  the  cables  became  so 
absolute  that  the  Mackay-Bennett  cables  were  laid 
and  gave  a  competing  service  to  Europe,  which  was 
afterward  largely  extended  to  other  parts  of  the 
world. 

In  probably  no  other  country  of  the  world  would 
one  man  be  permitted  to  control  its  telegraph  sys- 
tem. But  Gould  became  the  absolute  dictator  of 
the  Western  Union  and  successfully  overcame  every 
competitor  that  arose.  His  record  in  Western 
Union,  like  that  in  his  other  properties,  is  that  of  a 
tremendous  increase  of  securities.  Like  the  wicked 
milkman,  Gould  always  skimmed  off  the  cream  and 
poured  water  into  all  his  properties.  The  comic 
papers  delighted  to  picture  him  with  a  watering-pot 
in  his  hand. 

The  mainspring  of  the  Western  Union  is  mo- 


154        GOULD  AND  THE  TELEGRAPH  MONOPOLY. 

nopoly.  Its  condition  is  such  that  it  cannot  exist  with 
profit  to  its  stockholders  with  a  strong  competition 
in  the  field.  Thus  it  is  a  grand  aggregation  of  small 
companies.  It  has  absorbed  and  will  probably  con- 
tinue to  absorb  every  rival  in  the  field.  Gould  him- 
self rode  into  control  on  the  back  of  a  competing 
company.  This  was  early  in  1881.  His  version  of 
the  story  is  given  in  his  testimony  to  the  Senate 
Committee  on  Labor  and  Education. 

"I  am  interested  in  the  telegraph,"  he  told  the 
committee,  "for  the  railroad  and  telegraph  systems 
go  hand  in  hand,  as  it  were,  integral  parts  of  a  great 
civilization.  I  naturally  became  acquainted  with 
the  telegraph  business  and  gradually  became  inter- 
ested in  it.  I  thought  well  of  it  as  an  investment, 
and  I  kept  increasing  my  interests.  When  the 
Union  Pacific  was  built  I  had  an  interest  in  a  com- 
pany called  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific,  and  I  endeavored 
to  make  that  a  rival  to  the  Western  Union,  We  ex- 
tended it  considerably,  but  found  it  rather  uphill 
work.  We  saw  that  our  interest  lay  more  with 
the  Western  Union.  Through  that  we  could  reach 
every  part  of  the  country,  and  through  a  small 
company  we  could  not;  so  we  made  an  offer  to  sell 
to  Western  Union  the  control  of  the  Atlantic  and 
Pacific.  At  that  time  a  very  dear  friend  of  mine  was 
the  manager,  and  I  supposed  that  he  would  be  made 
the  manager  of  the  Western  Union;  but  after  the 
consolidation  was  perf-ected  it  was  not  done,  and  I 
made  up  my  mind  that  he  should  be  at  the  head  of 
as  good  a  company  as  I  had  taken  him  from.  The 


GOULD  AND  THE  TELEGRAPH  MONOPOLY.         I  55 


friend  was  Gen.  Eckert,  and  for  him  I  started 
another  company,  the  American  Union — and  we 
carried  it  forward  until  a  proposition  was  made  to 
merge  it  also  into  the  Western  Union.  As  the  stock 
of  the  latter  went  down,  I  bought  a  large  interest  in 
it,  and  found  that  the  only  way  out  was  to  put  the 
two  companies  together.  Gen.  Eckert  became 
general  manager  of  the  whole  system.  Meantime,  I 
bought  so  much  of  its  property  and  its  earning 
power  that  I  have  kept  increasing  my  interest.  I 
thought  it  better  to  let  my  income  go  into  the  things 
that  I  was  in  myself,  and  I  have  never  sold  any  of  my 
interests,  but  have  devoted  my  income  to  increas- 
ing them.    This  is  the  whole  history  of  it." 

This  beautiful  account  of  Gould's  devotion  to  a 
friend,  to  the  extent  of  starting  a  telegraph  com- 
pany for  him,  does  not,  however,  tell  the  whole  story. 
Gould's  policy  in  regard  to  the  American  Union  was 
twofold.  It  was  to  establish  a  competing  company 
so  strong  that  the  Western  Union  would  have  to  ab- 
sorb it,  or  else  it  would  absorb  the  Western  Union. 
The  result  was  that  the  Western  Union  did  absorb 
the  American  Union  and  Gould  absorbed  the  West- 
ern Union!  By  the  aid  of  his  rival  company  Gould 
kept  hammering  at  the  stock  of  the  Western  Union, 
then  controlled  by  Vanderbilt.  By  every  art  known 
to  Wall  street  speculation  he  forced  the  price  down 
as  low  as  he  could.  He  sold  the  stock  ''short"  in 
large  amounts,  and  in  buying  to  cover  bought 
enough  additional  to  place  him  in  control.  Then 
he  consolidated  the  two  companies  and  100,000 


156        GOULD  AND  THE  TELEGRAPH  MONOPOLY. 


shares  of  American  Union,  which  represented  a 
comparatively  small  outlay  of  capital  on  the  part 
of  Gould,  went  into  the  Western  Union  at  par  and 
Gould's  immense  holdings  of  Western  Union  were 
thus  acquired  at  a  low  figure.  Of  course,  if  he  had 
attempted  to  market  his  holdings  in  one  lump  his 
profits  would  have  been  wiped  out,  but  by  carry- 
ing the  load  and  letting  the  stock  out  by  driblets 
his  profits  were  large,  even  if  he  sold  under  the 
market  price,  which  was  nearly  always  below  par. 
On  Jan.  11,  1881,  it  became  known  in  Wall  street 
that  the  consolidation  w^as  probable  and  the  price  of 
Western  Union  rose  from  78  to  103  and  the  next  day 
to  114}^.  The  consolidation  increased  the  capital- 
ization of  the  Western  Union  to  $80,000,000,  and 
this  amount  has  increased  later  by  the  capital- 
ization of  scrip  dividends  and  by  the  acquisition  of 
the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  telegraph.  After  Gould 
became  the  master  of  the  system  the  Mutual  Union 
was  started  as  a  rival  concern.  Gould  soon  gobbled 
it  up  and  leased  it  to  the  Western  Union.  Then 
Robert  Garrett  developed  the  wires  owned  by  the 
Baltimore  and  Ohio  railroad  into  a  competing  tele- 
graph system,  and  under  the  management  of  Mr. 
Bates,  who  had  formerly  been  with  Gould  in  Ameri- 
can Union  and  Western  Union,  it  became  a  big  sys- 
tem, stretching  far  west  and  south.  But  Garrett 
soon  got  into  deep  waters.  He  had  not  the  genius 
of  his  father,  the  famous  John  W.  Garrett,  and  a 
struggle  with  Gould  was  beyond  his  strength.  The 
Baltimore  and  Ohio  railroad,  nominally  a  Gibraltar 


GOULD  AND  THE  TELEGRAPH  MONOPOLY.        1 57 


of  strength,  was  intrinsically  weak.  Garrett  entered 
into  negotiations  to  sell  a  controlling  interest  in  the 
property.  His  desire  was  to  place  it  in  hands  hostile 
to  Gould,  but  the  latter  used  his  power  in  the  stock 
market  to  frustrate  his  plans.  Garrett  contracted  to 
deliver  the  control  to  Henry  S.  Ives,  a  young  spec- 
ulator who  was  modeling  his  life  after  the  Gould 
pattern,  but  in  the  end  Garrett  was  not  able  to  de- 
liver, nor  was  Ives  able  to  receive.  The  B.  and  O. 
system  was  dismembered,  and  the  telegraph  fell  into 
Gould's  hands.  Gould  had  previously  announced  to 
the  public  that  "the  Western  Union  does  not  intend 
to  buy  any  more  rival  telegraph  companies,"  but 
when  he  found  he  could  get  die  B.  and  O.  cheap,  a 
little  declaration  of  that  kind  did  not  stand  in  the 
way.  In  fact  it  was  intended  only  to  mask  his  inten- 
tion to  buy. 

Gould  drew  around  him  in  Western  Union  a 
powerful  body  of  men.  His  board  of  directors  in- 
cluded Norvin  Green,  Harrison  Durkee,  Alonzo  B. 
Cornell  (who  when  governor  of  the  state  from  1880 
to  1883  posed  as  an  anti-Gould  and  anti-monopoly 
governor),  Cyrus  W.  Field,  Robert  L.  Kennedy, 
Hugh  J.  Jewett  (whose  testimony  in  regard  to  Erie 
has  already  been  quoted),  J.  Pierpont  Morgan,  of 
Drexel,  Morgan  &  Co.;  C.  P.  Huntington,  R.  C. 
Clowry,  Henry  Weaver,  Erastus  Wiman,  of  R.  G. 
Dun  &  Co.;  John  Jacob  Astor,  Frank  Work,  George 
B.  Roberts,  president  of  the  Pennsylvania  railroad, 
the  leading  railroad  system  of  the  world;  George  D. 
Morgan,  John  Hoy,  W.  D.  Bishop  and  J.  W.  Clen- 


158         GOULD  AND  THE  TELEGRAPH  MONOPOLY. 


denin.  The  management,  however,  was  in  the  hands 
of  an  executive  committee  composed  of  Gould's 
immediate  associates.  The  Western  Union,  besides 
its  land  system,  owns  ocean  cables  and  has  a  big 
interest  in  the  telephone  and  stock  "ticker"  sys- 
tems, and  Gould's  power  as  the  master  of  this  com- 
pany can  scarcely  be  estimated. 

It  is  believed  that  Mr.  Gould's  real  ambition,  so 
far  as  concerned  the  Western  Union,  was  to  sell  it 
to  the  government.  But  so  long  as  the  country 
believed  that  Jay  Gould  desired  to  sell  there  could 
be  no  public  opinion  aroused  in  favor  of  purchasing 
it.  So  Gould,  if  such  was  his  real  desire,  masked 
his  purpose  behind  a  display  of  indifference  or  oppo- 
sition, in  the  hope  that  if  it  was  thought  he  did  not 
wish  to  sell  the  country  would  be  all  the  more  eager 
to  buy.  Thus  he  told  the  Committee  on  Labor  and 
Education: 

'T  think  the  control  by  the  government  is  con- 
trary to  our  institutions.  The  telegraph  system, 
of  all  other  business,  wants  to  be  managed  by  skilled 
experts,  while  the  government  is  founded  on  the 
idea  that  the  party  in  power  shall  control  the 
patronage.  If  the  government  controlled  it  the 
general  managers'  heads  would  come  off  every  four 
years  and  you  would  not  have  any  such  efficient  serv- 
ice as  at  present.  The  very  dividend  of  the  West- 
ern Union  is  based  upon  doing  business  well,  keeping 
her  customers  and  developing  her  business.  If  the 
Democrats  were  in  power  there  would  be  a  Demo- 
cratic telegraph;  if  the  Republicans  came  into  power 


GOULD  AND  THE  TELEGRAPH  MONOPOLY.        I  59 

there  would  be  a  Republican  telegraph,  and  if  the 
reformers  came  in  I  don't  know  what  there  would 
be.  (Laughter.)  - 1  think  it  would  be  a  mere  politi- 
cal machine.  I  would  be  perfectly  willing,  so  far  as 
I  am  concerned,  to  allow  the  government  to  try  it, 
to  sell  out  our  property,  but  it  would  be  very  unjust 
to  take  it  away,  the  property  of  our  own  citizens,  and 
make  it  valueless." 

"Have  you  any  idea  what  the  government  ought 
to  pay?" 

"I  think  that  it  ought  to  pay  what  it  is  worth 
and  no  more.  I  think  that  the  method  that  was 
provided  in  the  law  is  a  very  just  one,  and  I  would 
be  perfectly  willing  to  let  the  government  take  it  on 
those  terms." 

"What,  in  your  opinion,  is  the  Western  Union 
property  worth?" 

"Well,  I  judge  of  property  myself  by  its  net 
earning  power;  that  is  the  only  rule  I  have  been 
able  to  get.  If  you  show  me  a  property  that  is  pay- 
ing no  more  than  the  taxes,  I  don't  want  it.  I  want 
property  that  earns  money.  You  might  say  that 
there  is  water  in  Western  Union,  and  so  there  is. 
There  is  water  in  all  this  property  along  Broadway. 
This  whole  island  was  once  bought  for  a  few  strings 
of  beads.  But  now  you  will  find  this  property 
valued  by  its  earning  power,  by  its  rent  power,  and 
that  is  the  way  to  value  a  railroad  or  a  telegraph. 
So  it  is  worth  what  it  earns  now,  a  capital  that  pays 
seven  per  cent." 


l60        GOULD  AND  THE  TELEGRAPH  MONOPOLY. 


"That  would  be  ;^  100,000,000?" 
Yes,  and  it  is  worth  much  more  than  that, 
because  there  are  a  great  many  assets." 


GOULD  FAINTING  AT  DIRECTORS'  MEETING  IN  RUSSELL  SAGE's  OFFICE. 


CHAPTER  XII. 


GOULD  AND  THE  MANHATTAN  ELEVATED. 

JAY  GOULD  was  not  an  originator  of  systems. 
Others  with  ideas  secured  charters,  began  rail- 
roads and  other  schemes,  and  then,  when  money 
was  needed,  Gould  would  step  in  and  profit  by  their 
energies  by  purchase  at  low  figures.  This  was  never 
more  forcibly  illustrated  than  by  his  connection 
with  the  elevated  railroad  system  of  New  York  City. 

He  had  nothing  to  do  with  their  construction. 
In  fact,  Gould's  name  is  unidentified  with  any  great 
public  undertaking  original  with  himself.  Other 
men  planned  and  built.  He  grabbed.  He  did,  it 
is  true,  start  a  telegraph  company,  and  put  up  poles 
and  wires,  but  it  was  only  as  a  part  of  his  plan  to 
capture  a  system  already  constructed.  So  the 
elevated  roads — the  measurable  solution  of  the 
problem  of  rapid  transit  in  the  metropolis  and  an 
inestimable  boon  to  the  city — are  not  due  to  the 
foresight,  pluck  and  energy  of  Gould.  Other  men 
were  the  pioneers,  but  they  were  driven  to  the  wall 
and  forgotten,  while  he  plucked  the  fruits  of  their 
labors. 

Gould,  naturally  enough,  came  into  control  of 
this  great  system,  which  carries  6oo,000  passengers 
every  day,  through  a  consolidation  and  the  "water- 

161 


l62        GOULD  AND  THE  MANHATTAN  ELEVATED. 


ing"  of  Stock.  There  were  three  elevated  roads — 
the  Metropolitan  (formerly  the  "Gilbert,"  named 
after  its  originator,  Dr.  Gilbert),  of  which  S.  H. 
Kneeland  was  president;  the  second,  the  New  York, 
of  which  Cyrus  W.  Field  was  president  and  of  which 
Samuel  J.  Tilden  was  once  a  heavy  stockholder,  and 
the  third,  the  Manhattan,  of  which  Jay  Gould  and 
Russell  Sage  were  the  owners.  The  Metropolitan 
and  the  New  York  were  bona-fide  companies, 
actually  owning  railroads  and  rolling  stock,  but  the 
Manhattan  was  a  "paper"  company,  having  a 
nominal  charter  and  an  organization,  but  not  one 
inch  of  road.  Yet  these  three  companies  were  con- 
solidated on  equal  terms,  and  Gould,  Sage  and  Field 
became  the  owners.  Later  the  control  narrowed 
down  to  Gould  and  Sage. 

Sage,  Field  and  Kneeland  are  remarkable  char- 
acters in  Wall  street  history,  and  their  names  are 
intimately  identified  with  Gould's — Sage  and  Field 
as  associates,  and  Kneeland  as  an  unpurchasable 
opponent.  Russell  Sage  is  one  of  the  richest  men 
of  his  generation.  He  came  originally  from  Troy, 
where  he  ran  a  bank,  and  whose  district  he  repre- 
sented in  Congress,  before  the  war,  for  one  or  two 
terms.  Then  he  entered  Wall  street.  His  great 
distinguishing  trait  was  avarice.  He  worshipped 
the  mighty  dollar.  Money-getting  was  his  passion 
— not  for  the  power  and  luxury  which  money  can 
purchase,  but  for  the  mere  pleasure  of  acquisition. 
He  lived,  it  is  true,  on  Fifth  avenue,  and  gave  some- 
what to  charity,  but  his  habits  were  economical 


GOULD  AND  THE  MANHATTAN  ELEVATED.  163 


almost  to  the  point  of  peniiriousness,  and  once  a 
dollar  got  into  his  hands  it  did  not  easily  slip  through 
them.  It  should  be  said  of  him,  however,  that  he 
was  as  careful  of  other  people's  money  as  of  his  own. 
This  was  the  man  who  for  many  years  was  Gould's 
most  intimate  business  associate,  a  director  in  all 
his  companies  and  a  partner  in  all  his  schemes. 
Gould  estimated  Sage's  wealth  at  ^50,000,000  and 
their  combined  capital  was  thus  enormous.  Sage 
was  chiefly  a  money-lender  in  Wall  street.  He  car- 
ried an  immense  amount  of  ready  cash  and  was  of 
incalculable  aid  to  Gould  in  all  his  undertakings. 
It  is  indeed  one  of  the  traditions  of  the  street  that 
Sage  saved  Gould  from  ruin  at  a  time  when  he  was 
hotly  pressed  by  James  R.  Keene  and  other  bear  oper- 
ators. Field  was  a  different  kirid  of  a  man.  He 
liked  money  but  only  as  a  means  to  an  end,  and  he 
had  not  the  heart  or  mind  to  roll  up  a  colossal  fort- 
une in  the  way  that  Gould  and  Sage  did,  though  he 
shared  for  a  time  in  their  enterprises.  But  at  one 
time  he  was  worth  millions.  Field's  passion  was 
love  of  fame.  His  brothers  all  gained  distinction  in 
the  professions;  he  sought  and  obtained  distinction 
in  commercial  life.  One  of  his  brothers  sat  on  the 
Supreme  Bench  of  his  country.  Another  was  a 
leader  of  the  New  York  Bar.  A  third  was  a  noted 
clergyman,  editor  and  traveler.  Cyrus  W.  Field 
began  his  business  life  as  a  rag  merchant,  but  with 
idomitable  pluck,  energy  and  foresight  he  finally 
succeeded  in  constructing  the  first  Atlantic  cable, 

and  was  honored  both  in  London  and  New  York. 
11 


1 64        GOULD  AND  THE  MANHATTAN  ELEVATED. 


Mr.  Field  sought  almost  equal  distinction  in  con- 
nection with  the  elevated  railroads,  whose  great  im- 
portance he  comprehended,  and  he  made  a  bid  for 
popularity  by  insisting  on  a  reduction  of  the  fares 
from  10  to  5  cents  against  the  wishes  of  Gould  and 
Sage.  Sage  first  became  acquainted  with  Gould  in 
Troy.  Field  first  became  identified  with  him  in  1879, 
when  he  (Field)  was  president  of  the  Wabash  rail- 
road, though  we  have  seen  him  as  a  guest  at  the 
famous  banquet  given  to  President  Grant  on  '']im" 
Fisk's  steamboat  in  1869. 

Mr.  Gould  turned  his  attention  to  the  elevated 
railroads  in  this  city  early  in  1881.  The  Manhattan 
company  was  then  in  control  of  all  the  lines  as  lessee, 
and  to  Mr.  Gould's  keen  vision  that  company  pre- 
sented the  appearance  of  being  on  the  verge  of 
financial  disaster.  The  Manhattan  company  had 
issued  ^13,000,000  of  stock — pure  water — and  had 
divided  the  same  equally  between  the  Metropolitan 
and  the  New  York  companies.  There  was  much  criti- 
cism of  the  action  of  the  Manhattan  corporation  in 
issuing  so  large  a  quantity  of  stock  which  was 
wholly  unrepresented  by  property.  The  attorney- 
general  of  this  state,  Hamilton  Ward,  obtained  per- 
mission from  Judge  Donohue,  May  18,  1881,  to  begin 
a  suit  for  the  dissolution  of  the  Manhattan  company's 
charter  and  the  appointment  of  a  receiver.  Other 
suits  were  begun  about  the  same  time  to  restrain  the 
Manhattan  company  from  paying  any  dividends  on 
its  stock.  Of  course  these  suits  tended  to  depress 
Manhattan  stock  in  the  stock  market. 


GOULD  AND  THE  MANHATTAN  ELEVATED.  165 


Gould,  Sage  and  Field  agreed  together  to  con- 
solidate the  three  elevated  railroad  companies. 
They  were,  however,  met  by  the  determined  opposi- 
tion of  President  Kneeland,  of  the  Metropolitan 
road.  Nothing  could  induce  him  to  waver  in  his 
opposition.  His  associates  in  the  Metropolitan  de- 
serted him,  and  one  by  one  they  went  over  to  Gould, 
but  he  stood  firm  to  the  very  last,  and  his  persist- 
ency caused  a  celebrated  litigation,  which  proved 
so  protracted  and  costly  that  Kneeland  was  finally 
defeated,  though  his  spirit  was  unsubdued. 

At  that  period  Mr.  Gould  was  the  owner  of  the 
New  York  World,  and  for  several  months  in  1881 
that  newspaper  was  greatly  exercised  over  the  bad 
management  and  "financial  rottenness"  of  the  Man- 
hattan company.  Scarcely  a  day  would  pass  that 
the  World  did  not  contain  an  editorial  or  a  news  par- 
agraph attacking  Manhattan.  The  stock  kept  drop- 
ping two,  three  and  five  points  at  a  time.  With  the 
beginning  of  July,  1887,  suits  were  pending  against 
the  three  elevated  railroad  companies  in  all  of  the 
state  courts  in  which  they  could  be  brought.  Mr. 
Gould  became  a  stockholder  in  the  Metropolitan 
company  on  the  ist  of  that  month,  100  shares  of 
stock  having  been  transferred  to  him  by  Russell 
Sage.  On  July  8th,  Mr.  Gould,  Mr.  Connor,  Mr. 
Navarro,  and  other  friends  of  Mr.  Gould  were  elected 
directors  of  the  Metropolitan  company.  On  the 
same  day  Attorney-General  Ward  entered  an  order 
discontinuing  his  suit  against  the  Manhattan  com- 
pany in  this  judicial  district.    He  immediately,  how- 


l66        GOULD  AND  THE  MANHATTAN  ELEVATED. 


ever,  applied  to  Judge  Westbrook  at  Kingston,  and 
obtained  an  order  appointing  ex-Judge  John  F.  Dil- 
lon and  Albert  L.  Hopkins  receivers  of  the  Manhat- 
tan company.  A  few  days  afterward  Cyrus  W. 
Field  began  a  suit  to  take  the  New  York  company's 
roads  out  of  the  hands  of  the  Manhattan  company, 
and  later  an  application .  was  made  to  the  receivers 
to  sue  the  New  York  and  Manhattan  companies  for 
the  $13,000,000  of  stock  issued  without  consideration. 
In  the  meantime  the  World  kept  up  an  incessant  fire 
of  criticism  and  denunciation  of  the  Manhattan  com- 
pany. The  price  of  the  stock  naturally  kept  drop- 
ping until  it  got  as  low  as  16. 

Early  in  October  Mr.  Gould  went  into  the  Man- 
hattan company,  and  it  was  proclaimed  that  he  and 
his  friends  had  obtained  control.  They  held  more- 
than  70,000  shares,  nearly  all  of  which  they  had  been 
able  to  pick  up  in  the  stock  market  at  prices  ranging 
from  20  to  16  cents  on  the  dollar.  All  of  the  timid 
original  stockholders  had  been  scared  into  sacrific- 
ing their  holdings  by  the  confusing  cloud  of  litiga- 
tion and  the  attacks  of  Mr.  Gould's  newspaper. 

For  a  while  after  Mr.  Gould  got  control  of  the 
Manhattan  company  there  was  some  show  of  fight 
between  him  and  Cyrus  W.  Field,  who  represented 
the  stockholders  of  the  New  York  company.  Soon 
Gould,  Field  and  Sage  came  together  and  had  an 
amicable  understanding.  An  opinion  was  obtained 
from  Judge  Westbrook,  who  held  court  in  Jay 
Gould's  private  office,  denying  the  application  of 
the  New  York  company  to  get  its  road  out  of  the 


GOULD  AND  THE  MANHATTAN  ELEVATED.  167 


hands  of  the  Manhattan  company,  and  in  the  latter 
part  of  October  the  Gould-Field-Sage  party  entered 
into  an  agreement  in  behalf  of  the  three  companies 
by  which  the  Manhattan  stockholders  were  to  receive 
only  6  per  cent,  dividend  on  their  stock  instead  of 
10  per  cent.  Next  came  an  order  from  Judge  West- 
brook  taking  the  Manhattan  company  out  of  the 
hands  of  the  receivers,  and  that  corporation,  which 
was  absolutely  under  Gould's  control,  proceeded  to 
rivet  its  hold  upon  the  entire  elevated  railway  system 
of  this  city.  Immediately  following  Judge  West- 
brook's  action  the  Manhattan  stock  went  above  52, 
and  on  November  9th,  the  day  that  Jay  Gould  was 
elected  president  of  the  company,  the  stock  was 
quoted  at  55. 

The  steps  which  Gould  and  his  associates  took 
to  "freeze  out"  the  original  stockholders  of  the  Met- 
ropolitan company  were  exposed  by  the  New  York 
Times  in  a  series  of  articles  beginning  in  December, 
1 88 1,  and  continuing  until  the  Legislature  ordered  a 
special  investigation  into  the  matter  in  April,  1882. 
Specific  charges  were  made  against  Hamilton  Ward, 
as  attorney  general,  and  Justice  Theodoric  R.  West- 
brook  of  the  Supreme  Court  for  their  part  in  the  ele- 
vated railroad  proceedings,  and  the  Judiciary  Com- 
mittee of  the  Assembly  spent  several  weeks  in  taking 
testimony.  Jay  Gould  and  others  were  examined, 
and  letters  and  telegrams  from  Judge  Westbrook  to 
Gould's  lawyers  were  produced  in  evidence,  show- 
ing that  Westbrook  had  a  very  friendly  understand- 
ing with  Mr.  Gould.    It  was  also  proved  that  on  two 


l68        GOULD  AND  THE  MANHATTAN  ELEVATED. 


occasions  Judge  Westbrook  exercised  his  judicial 
functions  in  Gould's  private  office.  The  committee 
was  divided  in  its  conclusions  and  Westbrook  just 
escaped  impeachment.  The  effective  lessons  of  the 
exposure  and  the  official  investigation,  however,  put 
a  stop  to  further  "freeze-out"  tactics  in  dealing  with 
the  honest  stockholders  of  the  Metropolitan  Ele- 
vated Railroad  Company.  Those  who  had  refused 
to  be  shaken  off  by  the  bearish  assaults  on  the  prop- 
erty finally  received  satisfactory  compensation  for 
their  property  from  Mr.  Gould  and  his  associates. 

After  obtaining  full  control  of  the  elevated  rail- 
road system,  Gould  and  his  associates  voted  to 
double  the  capital  stock,  making  it  $26,000,000.  In 
opposing  the  reduction  of  the  fare  from  10  cents  to 
5  cents,  they  argued  that  a  5  cent  fare  would  not  en- 
able them  to  pay  dividends  on  their  $26,000,000.  A 
member  of  the  Senate  committee  suggested  that 
they  might  reduce  their  capitalization.  Mr.  Field 
became  identified  with  all  of  Mr.  Gould's  proper- 
ties, but  gave  most  of  his  attention  to  the  develop- 
ment of  the  elevated  roads.  In  1886  he  inaugurated 
the  big  bull  movement  in  Manhattan  stock.  He 
"boomed"  the  stock  in  every  possible  w^ay,  and 
bought  immense  quantities,  and  publicly  predicted 
that  it  would  sell  at  200.  He  succeeded  in  pushing 
the  price  to  175.  Like  almost  all  artificial  corners 
this  movement  collapsed  suddenly  and  Mr.  Field 
was  nearly  buried  in  the  ruins.  Many  believed  at 
the  time  that  this  collapse  was  precipitated  by 
Gould  and  Sage.    It  might  have  come  about  by 


GOULD  AND  THE  MANHATTAN  ELEVATED.  169 


other  causes,  but  Gould  gave  the  tottering  structure 
the  push  that  leveled  it  to  the  ground.  There  were* 
many  reasons,  it  was  argued,  for  his  action.  First, 
Field  was  no  longer  necessary,  but  on  the  contrary 
a  hindrance  to  Gould  and  Sage,  and  they  therefore 
wanted  to  get  rid  of  him;  and  second.  Field  was  con- 
ducting his  bull  movement  independently  of  them. 
They  would  profit  by  his  fall,  while  if  he  succeeded 
the  system  might  pass  into  his  hands.  So  in  June, 
1887,  came  the  collapse.  Mr.  Field  never  charged 
Gould  with  having  precipitated  it,  and  Gould  him- 
self claimed  that  he  came  to  the  rescue  of  Field 
and  saved  him  from  bankruptcy.  It  was,  however, 
a  remarkable  deal  and  one  by  which  Gould  made 
himself  absolutely  master  of  the  elevated  system, 
of  which  in  1891  he  made  his  eldest  son  vice-presi- 
dent, and  another  son  a  director.  Field  was  carry- 
ing an  immense  amount  of  stock  on  margins  and 
was  consequently  a  heavy  borrower  of  money. 
Gould  and  Sage  were  lenders.  The  bank  reserves 
were  low.  Gould  and  Sage  called  in  their  loans  and 
Gould  found  it  impossible  to  negotiate  loans  and 
was  thus  obliged  to  throw  over  his  stock  at  a  sacri- 
fice. The  price  of  Manhattan  fell  from  160  to  120 
and  Gould  purchased  from  Field  78,000  shares  at 
prices  understood  to  have  ranged  from  par  to  120. 
Field  saved  his  real  estate  and  other  property,  but 
his  power  in  the  street  was  gone.  His  later  history 
was  a  tragedy.  In  1891,  within  a  few  weeks,  he  lost 
his  wife  and  his  son  became  a  disgraced  bankrupt, 
A  few  months  ago  Field  died,  broken  hearted. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 


THE  LIFE  OF  A  WALL  STREET  KING. 

WHILE  it  is  true  that  the  story  of  Jay  Gould's 
career  in  Wall  street  is  closely  allied  with 
his  outside  operations,  a  full  account  of  which  has 
already  been  given,  there  still  remain  many  other 
incidents  connected  directly  with  his  work  on  the 
street  of  unusual  interest.  Out  of  this  mass  of  ma- 
terial but  two  or  three  incidents  of  the  most  com- 
manding interest  can  be  used. 

The  most  dramatic  of  these  was  the  pommeling 
of  Jay  Gould  by  Major  A.  A.  Selover  in  August, 
1877.  Selover  was  a  Californian,  a  six-footer,  a 
blond,  muscular  and  vigorous.  He  first  attained 
prominence  in  Wall  street  when  James  R,  Keene 
came  East  after  his  successful  mining  operations  in 
San  Francisco,  by  which  he  achieved  a  fortune  of 
$8,000,000.  Keene  was  a  daring,  almost  fool- 
hardy stock  gambler.  He  always  played  for  big 
stakes  and  took  enormous  chances.  His  success  in 
San  Francisco  had  been  so  great  that  he  entered 
Wall  street  with  the  idea  of  clearing  all  before  him. 
He  tackled  Gould  as  the  biggest  animal  in  the 
arena,  but  found  to  his  sorrow  that  he  had  to  deal 
with  a  man  more  able  than  he,  scarcely  less  daring 
but  far  more  cautious.  In  a  few  short  years  Keene's 
wealth  had  dwindled  away,  and  early  in  1884  he 

170 


GOULl)"s  BIRTHPLACE,  AND  HIS  PALACE  ON  THE  HULSON. 


THE  LIFE  OF  A  WALL  STREET  KING. 


171 


failed,  owing  hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars  in 
the  shape  of  "puts,"  ''calls"  and  ''straddles."  He 
dropped  at  the  rate  of  about  a  million  dollars  a  year 
in  Wall  street,  and  no  small  proportion  of  this  found 
its  way  into  the  pockets  of  Gould.  Yet  Keene  at 
one  time  was  thought  to  have  outmatched  Gould. 
Selover  introduced  Keene  to  Gould,  and  acted  as 
go-between  for  them  in  certain  operations  in  which 
both  were  interested.  Early  in  1877  the  two  men 
combined  forces  in  one  deal.  That  is  to  say,  they 
joined  in  one  enterprise  and  fought  each  other  be- 
hind each  other's  back.  It  was  a  case  of  diamond 
cut  diamond.  Keene  formed  a  big  pool,  and,  be- 
ginning to  fight  Gould,  finally  went  over  to  him, 
being  led  into  this  change  largely  through  the 
instrumentality  of  Selover.  Both  Keene  and  Sel- 
over then  operated  on  an  understanding  with  Gould, 
but  soon  found,  as  they  charged,  that  Gould  was 
secretly  selling  them  out.  Gould  and  Keene  had  a 
stormy  scene  in  Russell  Sage's  office,  when  the 
latter  is  said  to  have  brandished  a  pistol  in 
Gould's  face.  The  deal  had  been  mainly  in  West- 
ern Union,  which  Gould  did  not  then  control, 
and  Atlantic  and  Pacific,  which  he  did  control. 
Gould's  double-dealing  not  only  made  Keene  very 
mad,  but  made  Selover  very  desperate.  He  had 
placed  reliance  in  Gould's  statements  and  had  suf- 
fered loss,  and  resolved  upon  revenge.  According- 
ly, on  the  2d  of  August,  1877,  while  walking  down 
Exchange  place  from  Broadway,  Selover,  meeting 
Gould  walking  up  to  the  office  of  Belden  &  Co., 


172  THE  LIFE  OF  A  WALL  STREET  KING. 


.  No.  80  Broadway,  of  which  he  was  then  a  partner,  first 
engaged  him  in  what  appeared  to  be  an  amicable 
conversation,  but  soon  resulted  in  an  assault.  Sel- 
over  first  struck  Gould  in  the  face  and  then  dropped 
him  over  an  areaway  at  No.  65  Exchange  place, 
which  was  seven  or  eight  feet  deep.  Mr.  Gould  was 
a  good  deal  shaken  up,  but  not  seriously  injured. 
Selover  left  to  go  to  his  brokers  and  Gould  pro- 
ceeded to  transact  his  business  as  usual.  He  was 
assisted  from  the  areaway,  singularly  enough,  by 
George  Crouch,  who  has  been  identified  with  several 
incidents  in  Gould's  career  from  the  days  of  Erie 
and  Black  Friday  to  the  Kansas  Pacific  criminal 
prosecution,  and  who  was  one-third  artist,  one-third 
newspaper  man  and  one-third  speculator.  The  Sel- 
over incident  created  an  immense  sensation  at  the 
time,  and  the  newspapers  printed  columns  about  it. 
Selover  became  quite  a  hero,  for  while  there  was 
nothing  very  courageous  in  his  assault  from  a  physi- 
cal point  of  view,  as  he  was  more  than  a  match  for 
timid  Mr.  Gould,  yet  to  attack  Gould  was  considered 
by  many  an  act  of  moral  bravery.  Selover  declared 
that  he  had  attacked  Gould  because  Gould  had  been 
guilty  of  fraud,  lying  and  duplicity.  Gould,  he  said, 
had  made  arrangements  with  him  to  go  short  on 
Western  Union,  and  while  he  (Selover)  was  selling 
'  ordingly  in  good  faith*  he  discovered  that  Gould 
\vas  buying  heavily.  When  he  learned  of  this  he 
determined  to  punish  him  the  first  time  he  met  him, 
and  so  he  had  charged  him  with  the  fraud  and  slapped 
his  face.  *T  attacked  him  on  my  own  account  alone," 


THE  LIFE  OF  A  WALL  STREET  KING.  I73 


he  added,  "and  regardless  of  the  fact  that  he  had 
played  Jim  Keene  the  same  trick.  He  is  notoriously 
treacherous,  and  this  is  not  the  first  time  he  has  been 
punished  for  the  same  offense."  Poor  Mr.  Selover 
never  amounted  to  very  much  in  Wall  street  after 
this,  though  he  continued  to  be  seen  there  daily, 
Gould,  after  this  incident,  rarely  appeared  in  the 
street  unless  accompanied  by  stalwart  G.  P.  Moro- 
sini. 

It  is  related  that  not  long  after  this  Keene  came 
near  getting  his  revenge  on  Gould.  The  latter  was 
putting  all  his  energies  into  Union  Pacific,  and  carry- 
ing ^22,000,000  of  the  stock,  mostly  in  margins 
Keene  organized  an  opposition  party  and  nearly 
succeeded  in  breaking  Gould.  Sage,  however,  came 
to  the  latter's  assistance  with  $2,000,000  of  much- 
needed  cash,  and  Gould  was  saved.  Keene's  pur- 
pose was  to  drive  Gould  from  the  street  forever,  but 
he  not  only  failed,  but  in  a  few  years  he  was  him- 
self a  bankrupt,  with  Gould  more  powerful  and  richer 
than  ever. 

Rumors  of  Gould's  death  and  of  his  impending 
bankruptcy  were  not  infrequently  circulated  in  Wall 
street.  Rumors  of  death  could  be  easily  disproved, 
but  once,  at  least,  the  street  was  firmly  convinced 
that  Gould  was  in  financial  difficulties,  and  Gould 
was  obliged  to  exhibit  his  wealth  in  order  to  prove 
that  he  was  solvent.  On  March  13,  1882,  Gould  ex- 
hibited to  Sage,  Field  and  Frank  Work  his  box  of 
securities,  to  show  that  he  was  not  only  solid,  but 
also  had  not  been  a  seller  of  stocks.    He  exhibited 


174 


THE  LIFE  OF  A  WALL  STREET  KING. 


to  the  astonished  vision  of  these  associates  ;^23,ooo,- 
OCO  of  Western  Union,  $12,000,000  of  Missouri 
Pacific,  and  $19,000,000  of  other  stocks.  Russell  Sage 
said:  "There  is  not  another  man  in  America  except 
Vanderbilt  who  could  make  such  a  display  of  stock 
as  that."  In  1884  Gould  made  another  exhibition  of 
his  securities  to  John  T.  Terry  and  others,  and  the 
display  was  even  bigger  than  two  years  before. 

The  panic  of  1884  is  believed  to  have  caused  Mr. 
Gould  much  anxiety.  It  came  suddenly  and  with- 
out warning.  There  had  been  earlier  in  the  year,  it 
is  true,  the  collapse  and  resignation  of  Henry  Vil- 
lard,  soon  followed  by  the  failure  of  James  R.  Keene, 
but  these  disasters  would  not  have  produced  the 
financial  earthquake  that  shook  Wall  street  in  May. 
The  failure  of  the  Marine  Bank  and  Grant  &  Ward, 
with  the  revelations  which  followed  of  embezzle- 
ment on  a  scale  never  before  witnessed  in  the  street, 
and  the  suspension  on  the  memorable  13th  and  14th 
of  the  month  of  the  Metropolitan  Bank,  George  I, 
Seney  and  seven  or  eight  prominent  banking-houses 
in  this  city  and  two  banks  in  Brooklyn  and  Newark, 
caused  a  panic  like  that  of  1869  and  1873,  and  from 
the  depressing  effects  of  which  the  street  did  not 
rally  for  several  years.  Gould's  fortune  melted  like 
snow  in  the  decline  of  values  which  accompanied 
this  panic.  He  came  out  of  it  probably  $20,000,000 
poorer  than  when  it  began.  But  this  loss,  it  is  true, 
was  chiefly  on  paper.  He  was  able  to  hold  most  of 
his  securities,  the  value  of  which  afterward  in- 
creased.    But  it  is  believed  that  he  was  at  one  time 


THE  LIFE  OF  A  WALL  STREET  KING. 


very  hotly  pressed.  His  associate,  Russell  Sage, 
lost  millions  in  the  decline  by  his  operations  in  puts 
and  calls.  His  office  was  besieged  by  a  mob  clam- 
orous for  their  profits.  The  old  man  reluctantly 
paid  up,  and,  badly  scared  and  sick  at  heart,  retired 
from  the  street  for  a  while,  hoarding  the  ;^40,oco,ooo 
or  $45,000,000  which  was  still  left  to  solace  him. 

The  men  who  chiefly  profited  by  the  great  de- 
cline were  Charles  F.  Woerishoffer  and  Addison 
Cammack,  the  leaders  of  a  small  but  powerful  bear 
party,  which  for  several  years  had  been  preparing 
for  this  depression,  and  by  all  the  bear  tactics,  of 
which  they  were  masters,  assisting  in  the  downward 
movement.  They  were  two  men  of  mark.  Woeris- 
hoffer was  the  superior  in  mind  and  nerve.  When 
he  died  in  1886,  while  under  forty  years  of  age,  he 
was  worth,  it  is  said,  $8,000,000  to  $10,000,000,  the 
result  of  his  daring  speculation.  He  was  probably 
the  ablest  stock  speculator  Wall  street  has  ever 
seen,  not  excepting  Gould,  whose  principal  success, 
it  should  be  remembered,  was  in  operations  outside 
of  the  street.  Woerishoffer  was  by  birth  a  German, 
and  was  the  son-in-law  of  Oswald  Ottendorfer. 
Some  of  the  most  successful  men  in  Wall  street,  it 
may  be  remarked,  are  Germans  or  of  German 
descent,  as  for  instance  Villard,  who  after  his  col- 
lapse in  1884  had  recovered  in  1888  the  ground  he 
had  lost;  August  Belmont,  the  banker,  the  Wormsers' 
and  the  Seligmans.  Cammack  was  a  man  of  much 
coarser  nature  than  Woerishoffer.  He  came  orig- 
inally from  the  South,  and  the  Wall  street  tradition 


176 


THE  LIFE  OF  A  WALL  STREET  KING. 


was  that  he  had  been  a  slave-driver  by  profession. 
Gruff  in  his  manner,  uncouth  in  his  language,  he  yet 
had  qualities  as  a  speculator  which  made  him  a 
power  in  the  street.  These  two  men,  with  their  fol- 
lowing, are  believed  to  have  very  nearly  driven 
Gould  to  the  wall  in  1884,  and  the  story  is  that 
Gould  might  have  gone  down  if  Cammack,  of  all 
men,  had  not  relented.  This  story,  like  many  oth- 
ers told  in  Wall  street,  probably  has  a  mixture  of 
truth  and  fiction.  In  1887  and  1888  Cammack  was 
very  evidently  in  alliance  with  Gould  in  stock  oper- 
ations. 

Gould  was  not  a  member  of  the  Stock  Exchange, 
though  he  was  often  the  biggest  customer  the  insti- 
tution had.  He  was,  however,  almost  always  in  gen- 
eral or  special  partnership  with  some  member  of  the 
Exchange  and  thus  obtained  all  the  advantages 
of  personal  membership.  After  the  dissolution  of 
the  house  of  Smith,  Gould  &  Martin,  Gould  became 
the  silent  partner  in  the  firm  of  William  Belden  & 
Co.  This  was  succeeded  by  the  famous  house  of 
W.  E.  Connor  &  Co.,  which  lasted  about  ten  years 
and  which  engineered  some  of  Mr.  Gould's  most 
successful  deals.  At  the  time  Mr.  Gould  retired 
from  the  firm,  in  1886,  it  was  composed  of  himself 
as  special  partner  and  of  Washington  E.  Connor, 
G.  P.  Morosini  and  George  J.  Gould,  the  great  oper- 
ator's eldest  son.  Mr.  Connor  was  the  ideal  broker 
and  perhaps  the  most  valuable  lieutenant  Mr.  Gould 
ever  had.  Not  overscrupulous  in  carrying  out  the 
interests  of  his  master,  he  was  faithful  to  the  last 


THE  LIFE  OF  A  WALL  STREET  KING.  1 7/ 

minute  to  him.  Tempting  offers  were  made  to  buy 
him  off  at  various  times,  and  he  might  have  made 
several  fortunes  in  betraying  the  confidences  of  his 
chief,  but  it  is  believed  he  was  always  true.  Like 
Morosini,  he  allied  his  interest  to  those  of  Gould 
and  profited  by  the  connection.  When  the  firm  dis- 
solved, Gould  said  of  his  partners:  "Both  are  very 
rich  men.  Mr.  Connor  is  worth  at  least  a  million  and 
Mr.  Morosini  two  or  three  times  as  much.  The  new 
firm  will  have  my  heartiest  good  will  in  whatever  it 
undertakes.  Between  Mr.  Connor,  Mr.  Morosini  and 
myself  there  has  never  been  an  interruption  of  good 
feeling." 

Mr.  Connor  was  not  only  faithful,  but  quick  and 
shrewd  in  his  judgments.  Upon  him  rested  nearly 
all  the  details  of  the  best  operations  of  the  house. 
These  operations  often  required  the  assistance  of 
fifty  or  sixty  brokers.  Often  these  brokers  did  not 
know  that  they  were  working  for  the  same  client. 
Sometimes  they  were  ignorant  even  of  the  fact  that 
Gould  was  their  client.  The  prime  necessity  in 
great  stock  operations  is  to  conceal  one's  move- 
ments. Sometimes  a  part  of  the  brokers  might  be 
selling  and  a  part  might  be  buying.  Gould  and 
Connor  alone  held  the  strings  of  the  intricate  opera- 
tions. One  of  the  first  great  successful  movements 
the  house  undertook  was  in  Kansas  Pacific  in  1879. 
The  stock  within  a  period  of  a  few  months  shot  up 
from  8  to  97,  and  the  bonds  from  10  to  no.  Gould 
cleared  nearly  ^10,000,000  by  this  operation.  The 
most  brilliant  feat  accomplished  by  the  house  was 


178 


THE  LIFE  OF  A  WALL  STREET  KING. 


performed  when  Gould  acquired  Western  Union. 
Mr.  Gould  for  a  long  time,  as  has  been  related,  had 
been  an  uncompromising  bear  on  the  stock.  The 
whole  street  was  aware  that  he  and  his  firm  were  heav- 
ily short  of  the  stock.  Suddenly  the  'stock  began  to 
rush  up.  Gould  was  caught  for  once,  it  was  said. 
The  truth  was  that  Connor  had  engineered  the  move- 
ment and  Gould  had  not  only  bought  in  all  his  shorts 
but  purchased  enough  stock  to  give  him  control  of 
the  company.  It  was  also  this  house  that  pushed 
Western  Union  up  from  78  to  91  and  pushed  Henry 
Smith  and  other  bears  to  cover  their  shorts  at  a 
heavy  loss.  It  also  handled  the  elevated  railway 
deals. 

While  Gould  and  the  Beldens  were  in  partner- 
ship at  No.  80  Broadway,  Connor  had  a  small  office 
in  the  rear.  He  was  bright,  sharp,  sagacious, 
reticent  and  nearly  as  well  informed  as  Gould  him- 
self. Gould  was  drawn  to  Connor  naturally,  and 
when  the  former  fell  out  with  the  Beldens  he  and 
Connor  formed  a  co-partnership.  Mr.  Morosini  for 
many  years  had  been  Mr.  Gould's  man  Friday,  and 
was  invariably  seen  with  a  large  canvas  bag  follow- 
ing his  employer  to  the  safe  deposit  vaults  and 
protecting  him  against  any  repetition  of  the  Selover 
attack.  Morosini  went  into  the  new  firm,  whose 
limitation  only  ran  from  year  to  year.  Connor  and 
Morosini  put  in  $100,000  each,  and  Gould,  as  special 
partner,  ;^250,ooo.  George  Gould  was  admitted  in 
1881,  but  without  paying  in  a  cent.  Although  the 
nominal  capital  of  the  house  at  all  times  has  been 


THE  LIFE  OF  A  WALL  STREET  KING. 


;^450,ooo,  the  actual  capital,  at  times  of  great  activity 
on  'Change,  ran  up  into  the  millions. 

But  Mr.  Connor  was  not  Gould's  only  broker. 
Charles  J.  Osborn  was  for  years  one  of  Gould's  closest 
lieutenants  and  associates,  and  a  more  dashing  broker 
never  stepped  into  the  Stock  Exchange."  William 
Heath,  "the  antelope  of  Wall  street,"  as  he  was  called 
because  of  his  long  legs  and  slender  body,  was  also 
long  a  favorite  with  Gould.  Heath  was  a  master  at 
keeping  secrets.  None  of  his  customers  could  ever 
learn  what  his  other  customers  were  doing.  His 
faithfulness,  experience  and  ability,  however,  availed 
him  little  in  the  end.  He  assisted  Gould  in  Black 
Friday  and  helped  him  in  ma,ny  a  risky  transaction. 
When  Heath  failed  with  Henry  N.  Smith  in  1885, 
Mr.  Gould,  though,  with  Morosini,  the  principal  cred- 
itor, did  not  come  to  his  assistance.  It  was  thought 
that  Gould  would  put  him  on  his  feet  again,  but  he 
did  not  do  so,  and  Heath — alone,  broken  in  spirit 
and  in  fortune — died  shortly  after  in  Staten  Island, 
but  not  until  he  had  been  lodged  for  a  while  in 
Ludlow  street  jail,  a  prisoner  for  debt. 

On  the  dissolution  of  W.  E.  Conner  &  Co.,  Dec. 
31,  1885,  Mr.  Gould  announced  his  permanent  re- 
tirement from  the  street.  That  perhaps  was  his  in- 
tention (though  he  was  as  prolific  in  retirements  as 
Charlotte  Cushman),  but  it  was  not  long  before  his 
presence  was  again  felt  in  the  Stock  Exchange. 

Gould  had  other  personal  encounters  besides  the 

one  with  Major  Selover.    Once,  while  lunching  in 

Delmonico's,  a  lawyer  named  Marrin  addressed  him 
12 


l80  THE  LIFE  OF  A  WALL  STREET  KING. 

and  asked  him  to  accompany  him  to  a  private  room. 
Mr.  Gould  declined.  Marrin  struck  him  in  the  face, 
saying:  "If  you  have  no  time  to  see  me,  take  that!" 
Mr.  Gould  quietly  continued  his  lunch.  Mr.  Marrin 
was  summoned  before  a  magistrate  and  compelled 
to  give  $500  bonds. 

It  was  his  habit  to  have  duplicated  reports  from 
corporation  officers  before  the  originals  were  pre- 
sented. He  was  now  and  then  cheated,  but  not 
often.  On  one  occasion  a  leading  editorial  severely 
animadverting  on  him  and  Fisk  was  shown  to  him 
before  any  considerable  part  of  the  paper's  edition 
had  gone  to  press.  He  handed  the  party  who 
brought  him  the  paper  $10,000  in  greenbacks  and  the 
edition  appeared  without  the  disturbing  criticism. 
His  enemies  were  numerous,  not  that  he  hated  any 
one  himself,  but  his  operations  necessarily  involved 
men  of  small  means  and  often  ruined  them  outright. 

Congressman  John  B.  Alley  is  said  to  have  re- 
marked of  him  at  twenty- four:  "I  won't  go  into 
anything  with  that  lad.  He  is  the  only  person  I 
ever  saw  who  inspires  me  with  fear."  Vanderbilt 
said,  "His  face  is  a  scoundrel's."  He  was  often 
accused  of  "milking  the  street,"  "forcing  quota- 
tions," "washing,"  and  "covering  his  shorts,"  but  on 
the  other  hand,  when  he  agreed  to  enter  a  pool  he 
acted  squarely  with  his  associates  unless  he  caught 
them  at  treachery,  and  then  he  quietly  waited  for 
an  opportunity  to  pay  them  off.  He  was  a  special 
partner  in  several  firms  of  brokers  and  carefully 
concealed  from  each  his  operations  with  the  others. 


JAV  GOL'LI>"s  UKATJ1I5K1). 


CHAPTER  XIV 


THE  KING  IS  DEAD. 


ENORMOUS  wealth,  power  in  the  world  of 
finance,  every  luxury  that  is  at  the  command  of 
man  except  health,  that  Jay  Gould  possessed.  On 
Friday  morning,  December  3,  1892,  at  9:1 5  o'clock, 
his  wonderful  career  was  ended.  It  was  a  perfect 
December  morning  when  the  soul  of  the  magnate 
went  to  the  undiscovered  country,  whither  it  had 
been  trending  for  so  many  months.  He  died,  not  as 
he  had  feared  to  die,  by  the  hand  of  the  assassin  or 
the  dynamite  crank,  but  as  peacefully  as  any  babe 
whose  lamp  of  life  has  dwindled  to  a  spark  ere  it 
flickers  and  goes  out.  He  died  surrounded  by  his 
children,  in  the  plain,  rear-extension  bedroom,  with 
its  window  looking  down  upon  the  conservatory.  It 
was  the  room  in  which  his  wife  died  before  him,  and 
which  he  had  since  occupied  whenever  he  was  in 
the  city.  It  led  to  the  little  study  where  only  his 
most  intimate  friends  were  admitted.  Here  the  last 
remnant  of  his  strength  ebbed  away,  and  even  v/hile  an 
attendant  turned  him,  he  was  gone,  and  $100,000,000 
were  without  a  master.  All  the  members  of  his 
family  were  at  his  bedside.  There  were  George  J. 
Gould  and  his  wife,  who  was  Edith  Kingdon.  There 
were   Edwin   Gould   and  the  young  woman,  Dr, 


I82 


THE  KING  IS  DEAD. 


Shrady's  daughter,  to  whom  he  was  so  lately  mar- 
ried. There  was  Miss  Helen  Miller  Gould,  named 
after  her  mother,  who  had  taken  her  mother's  place 
as  head  of  her  father's  household.  There  were  Miss 
Anna  and  Howard  and  Frank  Gould,  the  younger 
children,  and  there,  too,  was  Dr.  John  P.  Munn,  Jay 
Gould's  medical  adviser.  Mr.  Gould's  sons  and 
daughters  had  remained  by  his  side  until  one  o'clock 
the  previous  morning.  Then  he  fell  asleep,  and  his 
children,  worn  out,  went  to  bed.  They  were  around 
his  bed  again  very  early.  There  lay  the  Alexander 
of  speculation,  the  man  who  sought  new  financial 
worlds  to  conquer,  who  founded  possessions  on 
ruins  and  wrecks — there  lay  that  man,  helpless, 
weak  as  a  baby.  Always  physically  frail,  the  wast- 
ing disease  with  which  he  had  suffered  had  greatly 
emaciated  him.  His  nose  was  pinched,  his  face, 
half  hidden  by  his  grey-black  beard,  was  almost  as 
white  as  the  pillow  on  which  it  rested.  His  hands 
were  like  wax,  and  his  languid  eyes,  dimmed  by  the 
shadows  that  were  falling  across  his  brain,  moved 
lazily  here  and  there.  For  although  he  had  fallen 
into  a  stupor  during  the  night.  Jay  Gould  was  con- 
scious in  the  morning.  He  knew  he  was  about  to 
die.  He  knew  the  moment  was  near  that  he  had 
fought  to  delay,  fought  not  through  fear  of  death, 
but  with  a  mighty  pride  that  abhorred  the  thought 
that  even  death  should  overthrow  him. 

For  two  years  or  more  the  great  financial  manip- 
ulator had  been  battling  with  the  knowledge  that  in 
his  system  lurked  the  seeds  of  man's  most  insidious 


tilE  KING  is  DEA13.  1§3 

foe — consumption.  He  had  phthisis  pulmonaris  in 
both  lungs.  He  battled  with  the  knowledge,  and  he 
took  no  man  into  his  confidence  besides  his  private 
physician,  who  became  a  sort  of  trained  body  ser- 
vant to  him,  and  was  always  within  easy  call  to 
watch  him  when  he  had  acute  attacks,  and  his  two 
elder  sons,  George  J.  Gould  and  Edwin.  A  very 
master  of  silence  himself,  he  imposed  silence  upon 
these  confidants,  and  it  became  their  bounden  duty 
to  deceive  all  others  as  to  the  giant  which  had  laid 
its  grip  upon  his  life. 

And  so  the  story  went  forth  that  Jay  Gould  was 
afflicted  with  nervous  dyspepsia  merely,  and  every 
now  and  then  he  had  a  bilious  attack  which  "was  not 
dangerous,"  a  cry  which  was  repeated  even  when  he 
had  entered  the. shadow  of  the  dark  valley.  Up  to 
within  twelve  hours  of  his  death  the  same  cry  was 
repeated.  And  even  after  death  there  were  strenuous 
efforts  made  for  some  inexplicable  reason  to  shroud 
the  cause  in  mystery — a  mystery  which  could  have 
wrought  no  good  to  the  dead  man's  peace  and  that 
of  his  surviving  family. 

But  it  was  not  dyspepsia  which  sent  him  to  the 
South  of  France,  in  the  Atalanta,  under  the  watchful 
eye  of  his  medical  guardian.  Dr.  John  P.  Munn, 
whose  occupation  'is  gone  indeed.  It  was  not 
dyspepsia  which  sent  him  to  Florida  and  Southern 
California,  and  El  Paso,  and  the  grand  resorts  of 
Colorado,  nor  W'hich  caused  him  not  less  than  two 
weeks  ago  to  plan  a  trip  to  Mexico — for  he  did  not 
think  he  was  going  to  die,  even  then,  and  no  man 


THE  KING  IS  DEAD. 


ever  clung  to  life  more  fiercely  than  this  frail  and 
silent  embodiment  of  intellect. 

He  knew  the  truth,  but  he  bit  his  teeth  upon  it. 
He  would  not  let  men  into  the  secret,  and  sometimes 
put  himself  to  actual  pain  in  order  to  conceal  the 
truth,  as  when,  only  a  few  weeks  ago,  on  October  26, 
he  appeared  among  the  guests  at  Dr.  Shrady's 
house  and  took  a  quiet  part  in  the  Gould-Shrady 
wedding,  which  had  been  somewhat  hurried  at  his 
request. 

This  was  his  last  appearance  in  public,  unless  you 
can  count  a  visit  or  two  to  his  office  in  the  Western 
Union  building,  to  which  he  went  from  his  home  in 
a  closed  carriage,  and  dodged  in  by  way  of  the  base- 
ment office  before  any  one  could  see  him.  No  one 
who  saw  him  at  the  wedding  would  have  suspected 
that  he  was  so  near  death,  and  perhaps  he  would  not 
have  been  had  not  an  injudicious  ride,  in  company 
with  Dr.  Munn,  on  the  day  before  Thanksgiving, 
caused  a  cold  which  settled  on  his  lungs,  brought  on 
a  hemorrhage  and  paved  the  way  to  death. 

The  story  of  Mr.  Gould's  last  night  on  earth  is 
one  easily  told.  It  was  as  simple  as  any  tale  could 
be.  He  was  prepared,  and  so  were  all  the  members 
of  his  family.  His  going  off  was  merely  a  question 
of  time.  All  understood  how  it  would  be.  He  had 
laid  his  earthly  house  in  order,  had  explained  to  his 
older  sons  exactly  what  his  property  was,  how  he 
had  made  it,  and  what  he  should  do  to  develop  it  if 
he  lived. 

He  had  passed  the  distressing  slage  of  his  dis- 


THE  KING  IS  DEAD. 


185 


ease  and  he  coughed  but  little,  and  that  weakly. 
The  beard  upon  his  face  hid  to  some  extent  the 
terrible  emaciation,  but  the  chalky  pallor  of  the 
swarthy  skin  was  sharp  and  startling.  He  dozed  at 
times,  but  never  seemed  to  lose  consciousness.  He 
did  not  suffer  physically.  There  was  nothing  to 
fight  against  now  but  the  lassitude  of  utter  exhaus- 
tion, and  this  the  doctors — Munn  and  Janeway — did 
with  the  most  powerful  stimulants,  thus  prolonging 
life  by  a  few  hours,  but  doing  no  good  that  could  be 
measured. 

Several  times  during  the  night  it  was  thought 
that  he  was  going,  and  the  family  were  hastily  sum- 
moned to  the  bedside.  But  he  rallied  each  time 
with  wonderful  vitality,  and  his  will  remained  stiong 
and  under  control  to  the  last. 

Those  in  the  house  besides  the  medical  attend- 
ants and  nurses  were  the  children — George  J.  Gould, 
who  is  already  enthroned  as  his  father's  successor 
in  business;  Edwin,  the  second  son;  Helen  Miller 
Gould,  the  young  heiress,  who  was  the  apple  of  her 
father's  eye;  Howard,  who  is  just  coming  into 
manhood;  the  schoolgirl  daughter  Anna  and  the 
youthful  Frank,  with  Mrs.  George  Gould,  Mrs. 
Edwin  Gould  and  a  lady  intimately  connected  with 
the  family. 

Daylight  brou^t  an  apparent  renewal  of  the 
lease  of  life.  It  was  not  much  of  a  rally,  but  it  was 
enough  to  give  hope  that  the  invalid  would  struggle 
along  through  a  great  part  of  the  day.  Windows 
were  raised  and  curtains  drawn   in  parts  of  the 


186 


THE  KING  IS  DEAD. 


house,  giving  it  an  animated  and  lively  look  which 
it  had  not  worn  when  all  the  shades  were  down. 

Shortly  after  the  night-watch  of  newspaper  men 
had  gone  away  young  Mrs.  Gould  appeared  and 
drove  away,  in  her  carriage  for  a  brief  stay.  She 
said  that  her  father-in-law  was  much  the  same  as  he 
had  been  and  perfectly  conscious.  An  early  caller 
was  General  Manager  Hain,  of  the  "L"  road  system. 
He  stayed  but  a  moment,  and  when  he  resumed  his 
trip  down  town  he  little  realized  that  the  message  of 
death,  which  was  to  be  followed  by  the  draping  of 
all  the  "L"  road  engines,  would  reach  the  office 
almost  as  soon  as  he. 

The  December  sun  came  up  and  gilded  the  roof 
of  the  extension  in  which  the  multi-millionaire  lay 
gasping  out  the  remnant  of  his  life.  It  caught  in  the 
glass  of  the  conservatory  and  sent  baffling  lights 
into  the  eyes  of  passers  gazing  curiously  up  at  the 
windows  which  shrouded  the  drama  of  life  and  death 
within.  Audacious,  it  trickled  in  between  the  shut- 
ters until  a  hand  closed  them  tight,  and  it  saw,  what 
few  have  seen,  the  great  magician  of  Wall  street 
bent  low  by  a  power  greater  than  his  own. 

Just  then,  as  if  moved  by  some  sympathetic  force, 
all  of  the  raised  shades  were  lowered  and  the  great 
house  assumed  a  somber  aspect.  This  was  just  after 
nine  o'clock  in  the  morning.  A.few  moments  later 
a  messenger  boy  came  out  of  the  house  bearing  a 
telephone  message  from  Dr.  Munn  to  his  wife,  stat- 
ing that  Mr.  Gould  had  died  at  a  quarter  past  nine 
o'clock.    And  thus  the  news  that  a  king  was  dead 


tHE  KING  IS  DEAD.  iB^ 

trickled  out  unwillingly,  as  it  were,  through  the 
massive  oaken  doors  that  front  his  palace.  If  jay 
Gould's  secret  could  have  been  longer  kept  it  doubt- 
less would  have  been,  but  Death  sounds  a  tocsin 
which  even  a  master  of  silence  cannot  mufifle. 

In  all  the  spacious  palace  where  this  rich  man 
died  there  was  no  room  more  plain  and  simple  than 
his  own.  There  was  nothing  garish,  nothing  to  at- 
tract or  astonish  the  eye,  none  of  the  rare  and  beau- 
tiful bric-a-brac  or  articles  of  toilet  which  have  made 
Miss  Helen's  boudoir  famous  in  the  social  world. 
The  furniture  was  massive,  but  simple;  the  colors 
were  subdued.  Through  the  open  door  the  railroad 
manipulator  could  see  his  beloved  study — a  study, 
indeed,  where  he  has  pored  with  such  relentless  zeal 
by  day  and  night  over  law  books  and  other  weighty 
tomes,  planning  the  campaigns  which  made  him  a 
Napoleon  in  his  line,  and  which  were  so  disastrous 
to  those  who  opposed  him.  They  were  fading  now 
from  his  sight.    He  should  plan  no  more. 

He  indicated  with  a  whisper  and  a  gesture  that 
he  was  glad  his  children  were  all  there.  And  then 
he  showed  a  wish  to  change  his  position,  and  as  the 
attendant  turned  him  over,  the  spark  of  his  life  went 
out  as  if  some  breath  had  blown  it. 

With  the  slightest  echo  of  a  rattle  in  his  throat 
Jay  Gould  was  dead. 

As  soon  as  all  was  over  George  and  Edwin  took 
charge  of  matters  and  began  to  prepare  for  the 
funeral.  Messages  were  sent  to  Mrs.  Palm,  of  Cam- 
den, N.  J.,  and  Mrs.  Harris,  of  Philadelphia,  Mr. 


i88 


THE  KING  IS  DEAD. 


Gould's  sisters,  and  to  other  friends,  apprising  them 
of  the  death;  and  a  telephone  message  summoned 
the  undertaker  and  his  assistants  who  had  been  wait- 
ing the  word  from  their  headquarters  in  Forty-fourth 
street.  Vice-President  Clark, 'of  the  Union  Pacific 
road,  who  had  been  waiting  for  a  week  at  the  Wind- 
sor to  confer  with  his  chief,  dropped  over  to  the 
hotel  and  sent  a  number  of  messages. 

Then  a  huge  cravat  of  black  crape  was  placed 
upon  the  door-bell  to  warn  passersby  that  Death 
had  entered  at  the  door.  One  by  one  the  flags  on 
the  hotels  of  the  city,  on  the  Western  Union  and 
some  other  buildings  were  raised  to  half  mast.  The 
"L"  road  engines  were  draped  in  black,  and  soon  the 
voices  of  the  newsboys  crying  their  extras  spread 
the  tidings  through  the  city. 

Persons  loitered  about  the  house  where  death  was 
master  and  gazed  up  curiously  at  the  windows. 
There  was  but  one  Jay  Gould,  and  in  his  going  out 
lay  an  infinity  of  food  for  curiosity  and  comment. 

During  the  day  carriages  continued  to  stop  at 
the  mansion  and  at  the  house  of  Edwin  Gould, 
I  East  Forty-seventh  street.'  The  Rev.  Dr.  Paxton 
called  again  in  the  afternoon,  and  Chancellor  Mac- 
Cracken  was  among  those  admitted.  The  members 
of  the  family  were,  however,  entirely  inaccessible  to 
any  except  their  most  intimate  friends.  Cards  pre- 
sented at  the  house  or  at  the  houses  of  either  of  the 
sons,  with  a  view  to  seeing  members  of  the  family, 
met  with  the  answer  that  they  could  not  be  seen. 

In  the  afternoon,  when  the  usual  parade  of  car- 


THE  KING  IS  DEAD.  I89 

riages  was  moving  up  and  down  the  avenue,  there 
was  quite  a  jam  in  front  of  the  Gould  house.  Ladies 
would  order  their  coachmen  to  stop  and  would  peer 
inquisitively  out  of  their  carriage  windows.  Pedes- 
trians, too,  would  linger  on  the  corners  for  a  few 
minutes  to  look  at  the  house  and  comment  with 
each  other. 

As  might  have  been  expected,  the  "cranks"  were 
on  hand.  Whenever  they  began  to  air  their  ideas 
too  freely  a  policeman  made  them  move  on.  One 
of  these  cranks  started  to  expound  at  length  on  the 
singular  coincidence  that  it  was  on  the  first  Friday 
in  December,  one  year  ago,  that  the  bomb  thrower 
Norcross  blew^  up  Russell  Sage's  office,  and  that  on 
the  first  Friday  of  December  Jay  Gould  had  died. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Paxton,  in  speaking  of  Mr.  Gould's 
last  hours,  said:  **He  had  been  unconscious  for  a 
number  of  hours,  but  as  the  end  approached  con- 
sciousness returned.  He  opened  his  eyes,  and  they 
wandered  around  the  room  where  the  family  was 
gathered.  He  clearly  recognized  them,  and  at  his 
whispered  request  they  went  to  his  bedside.  To 
each  of  them  in  turn  he  whispered  a  few  words  of 
farewell.  Vitality  enough  for  this  was  vouchsafed 
him.  When  he  had  spoken  to  the  last  one  he 
became  unconscious  again,  and  in  a  few  minutes 
more  he  passed  away." 

The  mystery  as  to  the  nature  of  the  ailment 
which  wrecked  Mr.  Gould's  health  was  one  of  the 
features  of  his  last  illness.  It  may  be  stated  as  a 
peculiar  fact  that  his  most  trusted  friends,  and  even 


THE  KING  IS  DEAD. 


the  members  of  his  family,  were  not  aware  of  the 
disease  from  which  he  was  suffering  until  it  became 
evident  that  he  could  only  a  little  longer  withstand 
its  ravages. 

Mr.  Gould  was  variously  reported  as  a  victim  of 
neuralgia,  of  nervous  dyspepsia,  and  of  severe 
bilious  attacks,  and  the  announcement  that. what 
caused  his  death  was  consumption  will  be  received 
with  a  great  deal  of  surprise.  But  the  statement  is 
true. 

It  is  further  said,  that  the  disease  was  of  several 
years'  standing;  that  Mr.  Gould  was  aware  that  he 
had  it,  and  that  his  instructions  to  his  physician. 
Dr.  Munn,  were  that  it  should  be  kept  a  secret 
between  them  as  long  as  possible.  When,  there- 
fore, inquiries,  no  matter  by  whom,  were  made 
of  Dr.  Munn  as  to  Mr.  Gould's  ailment,  he  replied 
that  it  was  nervous  dyspepsia,  and  truthfully,  for  all 
consumptives  suffer  more  or  less  from  that  com- 
plaint. 

To  aid  his  physician  in  concealing  all  signs  of 
the  disease,  the  somewhat  extravagant  assertion  is 
made  that  Mr.  Gould  was  able  to  prevent  himself,  by 
an  effort,  from  coughing. 

The  secret  was  well  kept,  and  until  a  couple  of 
weeks  ago  Mr.  Gould  is  said  to  have  had  confidence 
that  Dr.  Munn's  efforts  to  delay  the  progress  of  the 
disease  •  would  be  attended  with  some  measure  of 
success,  and  that  he  would  be  able  tcr  keep  up  and 
get  around  for  some  years.  But  when  he  came 
down  from  Irvington  some  weeks  ago  he  was  not  so 


THE  KING  IS  DEAD. 


191 


confident.  A  slight  hemorrhage  was  followed  by 
several  more  severe. 

Mr.  Gould  attended  the  wedding  of  his  son  and 
Miss  Shrady,  at  Dr.  Shrady's  house  on  November  26, 
and  that  was  the  last  time  he  went  out.  He  became 
so  weak  that  he  took  to  his  plain  oak  bed  in  his  plain 
bedroom  in  the  extension  over  the  conservatory, 
where  he  died. 

Dr.  John  P.  Munn,  Mr.  Gould's  physician,  is 
probably  the  one  man  in  the  world  who  knew  Mr. 
Gould  really  well.  He  is  about  forty-five  years  old 
and  stoutly  built.  He  wears  long,  black  side 
whiskers. 

There  is  a  story  that  Dr.  Munn's  acquaintance 
with  Mr.  Gould  was  the  result  of  accident.  He  had 
come  to  this  city  to  practice  after  graduating  from 
a  medical  school  in  the  interior  of  the  state,  and 
put  up  his  sign  near  Mr.  Gould's  house.  One  day 
Mr.  Gould  was  taken  ill,  and,  his  family  physician 
not  being  at  home,  the  young  Dr.  Munn  was  called 
in.  His  treatment  was-  quickly  efficacious,  and  Mr. 
Gould,  liking  him,  a  few  months  later  made  him  a 
flattering  offer  to  look  after  his  physical  welfare  all 
the  time.  The  doctor  agreed,  and  has  not  now, 
therefore,  a  very  extensive  general  practice.  But  as 
compensation  for  that  loss,  he  has  seen  many  parts 
of  the  world  from  the  bridge  of  Mr.  Gould's  yacht, 
and  by  following  hints  dropped  from  the  lips  of  the 
great  manipulator  he  has  acquired  a  beautiful  home 
on  West  Fifty-eighth  street  and  a  handsom.e  income 
to  keep  it  going. 


192 


THE  KING  IS  DEAD. 


Mr.  Gould  had  every  confidence  in  Dr.  Munn, 
and  liked  him  personally,  and,  by  way  of  showing 
his  esteem  for  him,  he  had  him  made,  a  few  years 
ago,  a  director  in  the  Western  Union  Telegraph 
Company. 


FUNl'KAL  OF  JAY  (il)Ul.l)  MU).M  HIS  NKW  YORK  K liSlDENCK. 


CHAPTER  XV. 


GOULD  LAID  TO  REST. 

THE  first  intention,  after  the  death  of  Jay  Gould, 
was  that  the  funeral  services  over  his  remains 
should  be  as  public  as  the  limited  accommodations 
of  the  house  would  permit.  Ex-Judge  John  T.  Dil- 
lon, who  had  been  one  of  the  legal  advisers  of  Mr. 
Gould,  and  Dr.  Munn,  Mr.  Gould's  personal  and 
private  physician,  met  nearly  all  of  the  members  of 
the  family  and  agreed  upon  funeral  arrangements 
with  that  understanding.  But  it  was  soon  discovered 
that  the  probable  result  of  a  public  funeral  would 
be  a  blockade  of  Fifth  avenue,  and  the  intention 
was  consequently  abandoned. 

The  funeral  services  were  held  in  the  mansion 
where  he  had  lived  and  died,  at  four  o'clock  Mon- 
day afternoon,  December  5,  1892. 

They  were  heard  by  his  children,  whom  he  had 
loved,  and  by  many  others  whom  he  had  known 
well  in  life,  and  some  tears  fell  as  they  were  uttered 
— not  so  many,  perhaps,  as  have  fallen  at  the  fune- 
rals of  other  men  who  have  attained  prominence — 
and  on  his  coffin  were  lying  flowers,  placed  there  by 
the  hands  of  affection  and  of  friendship,  tokens  of 
sorrow,  clearly  sincere  and  deep,  that  those  who 
gave  them  would  see  him  no  more, 


194 


GOULD  LAID  TO  REST. 


Outside  of  the  house  Fifth  avenue  and  Forty- 
seventh  street  were  crowded  with  inquisitive  men 
and  women,  who  were  grievously  disappointed  be- 
cause they  were  not  allowed  to  enter  to  look  at  the 
face  of  the  dead  and  to  stare  at  the  trappings  of 
wealth.  But  the  policemen  who  guarded  the  en- 
trance were  inexorable,  and  there  was  nothing  to  do 
but  to  stand  on  the  pavement  and  gaze  at  those 
who  entered  and  at  the  walls  and  windows. 

In  the  early  morning  there  were  many  callers  at 
the  house.  Most  of  them  were  from  out  of  town, 
and  had  come  to  attend  the  funeral  services.  They 
were  met  at  the  door  by  George  Gould.  Those  who 
desired  were  permitted  to  go  upstairs  and  look  at 
the  face  of  the  dead.  The  body  was  in  the  rear  bed- 
room on  the  second  floor.  It  had  not  been  dis- 
turbed since  it  was  first  lifted  from  the  bed  where 
Mr.  Gould  died  on  Friday  morning.  It  was  in  a 
mahogany  box  surrounded  by  flowers  and  covered 
with  a  black  cloth.  A  servant  stood  at  the  head 
and  lifted  the  cloth  for  each  visitor.  None  of  the 
callers  staid  more  than  a  few  minutes.  They  went 
across  the  street  to  the  Windsor  Hotel  to  await  the 
hour  for  the  holding  of  the  services. 

About  10  o'clock  Undertaker  Main  called  with 
two  assistants.  A  moment  later  a  wagon  drove  up 
to  the  Forty-seventh  street  basement  entrance,  and 
the  coffin  was  carried  into  the  house  and  up  to  the 
room  where  the  body  was.  The  wagon  stood  there 
an  hour,  and  then  the  men  who  had  gone  in  with 
Undertaker  Main  carried  out  the  mahogany  case  and 


GOULD  LAID  TO  REST. 


pushed  it  into  the  vehicle  and  drove  away.  A  little 
later  Uildertakcr  Main  came  out.  He  said  the  body 
had  been  carried  down  stairs  and  was  in  the  parlor, 
where  it  would  lie  while  the  services  were  held. 
While  he  was  talking  two  wagon  loads  of  camp 
chairs  arrived.  One  contained  twelve  and  the  other 
fifteen  dozen.  They  were  carried  into  the  house. 
Even  at  this  hour  in  the  morning  the  people  in  the 
street  showed  a  disposition  to  stop,  and  had  it 
been  permitted  there  would  have  been  a  crowd  in 
front  of  the  house  that  would  have  blocked  the  street 
from  curb  to  curb. 

When  it  was  announced  that  the  funeral  would 
be  public  Capt.  Reilly  arranged  to  have  one  hundred 
policemen  on  the  spot  from  early  morning,  but  the 
later  decision  to  admit  only  the  intimate  friends  of 
the  family  made  the  captain  change  his  plan.  Until 
noon  only  four  uniformed  men  were  on  duty.  One 
of  these  was  in  Forty-seventh  street.  Two  were  on 
the  east  and^one  on  the  west  side  of  Fifth  avenue. 
They  pushed  along  any  one  who  stopped  more  than 
a  moment.  Some  were  indignant,  and  talked  back 
at  the  officers.  Their  talk  generally  resulted  in  a 
gentle  push  and  an  order  to  "  Come  now,  hurry  up. 
You  can't  stand  here."  About  noon,  two  policemen. 
Sergeant  Kelly  and  Roundsman  Bingham  came,  and 
a  few  minutes  later  a  dozen  men  from  the  Central 
office  in  citizen's  dress.  Four  of  them  were  detailed 
to  do  service  inside  the  house,  and  the  others  were 
to  mix  in  the  small  crowd  that  was  to  be  permitted 
to  gather.    They  had  orders  to  get  together  at  the 


196 


GOULD  LAID  TO  REST, 


very  first  word  that  indicated  a  disturbance  and 
squelch  the  offender  on  the  spot.  As  a  reserve  force 
in  case  anything  should  happen,  Capt.  Reilly  had 
twenty-five  men  in  their  rooms  at  the  station-house 
ready  to  march  on  the  double  quick. 

The  first  of  the  party  who  arrived  at  the  house 
to  attend  the  funeral  were  three  women  in  deep 
mourning,  an  elderly  man  and  two  young  men. 
They  came  about  noon.  They  were  Mr.  Gould's 
sisters,  Mrs.  Northrup  and  Mrs.  Palen,  and  Mrs. 
Northrup's  daughter  and  two  sons,  and  Mr.  Abra- 
ham Gould,  Mr.  Jay  Gould's  brother.  They  came 
from  Philadelphia  on  an  early  train,  and  went  direct 
to  the  house.  The  police  vigilance  to  prevent  the 
gathering  of  any  crowd  was  kept  up  until  I  o'clock, 
when  Capt.  Reilly  arrived.  He  said  that  people 
might  gather  half  a  dozen  deep  on  the  west  side  curb 
and  above  and  below  the  house  on  the  east  side, 
but  wide  passages  must  be  kept  open.  Sergeant 
Kelly  and  Roundsman  Bingham  were  put  on  duty 
on  the  steps  of  the  Gould  house.  Dr.  Munn  talked 
with  them  a  few  moments  in  the  vestibule.  He  told 
them  they  were  to  question  everybody  and  were  not 
to  let  anybody  pass  who  did  not  convince  them  of 
his  right  to  enter  the  house.  They  were  also  to 
keep  the  steps  clear.  Five  minutes  after  Capt. 
Reilly  issued  his  order  to  let  the  little  crowd  gather, 
every  inch  of  space  he  had  allotted  to  them  was 
taken.  At  first  it  was  a  crowd  composed  exclu- 
sively of  poor  people.  They  were  poorly  dressed 
and  many  of  them  looked  poorly  fed.  Curiosity 


GOULD  LAID  TO  REST. 


197 


only  had  induced  them  to  come.  They  had  not 
hoped  to  get  into  the  house.  While  this  crowd 
stood  in  the  street  there  was  a  hurry  and  bustle  in 
the.  corridor  of  the  Windsor  Hotel.  The  men  the 
poorer  people  came  to  see  were  forming  parties. 
The  directors  of  the  great  railroad  companies,  the 
Union  Pacific,  the  Missouri  Pacific,  and  the  others, 
were  getting  together.  Frank  Hain,  Julien  T. 
Davies,  and  Charles  A.  Gardener,  representing  the 
Manhattan  Elevated  railroad,  w^ere  among  them. 
William  C.  Whitney  had  charge  of  one  party. 

Once,  early  in  the  afternoon,  there  was  what 
appeared  to  be  a  concerted  rush  for  the  steps.  A 
number  of  persons  who  were  evidently  under  the 
impression  that  the  public  was  to  be  admitted  at  3 
o'clock  made  a  start  at  that  hour,  and  two  or  three 
hundred  others  followed.  Up  they  rushed,  and, 
although  the  policemen  shouted,  "Get  back!  You 
can't  go  in,"  a  few  did  make  their  way  into  the  house. 
They  were  quickly  ejected,  however,  and  thereafter 
only  individual  efforts  were  made  to  get  in.  Some 
of  these  were  persisted  in  stubbornly,  but  without 
success. 

Oddly  enough,  women  pleaded  the  hardest  to  be 

allowed  to  pass  through  the  big  oak  door,  women  of 

more  than  middle  age,  most  of  them,  who  could  give 

no  better  reason  for  wanting  to  see  the  face  of  the 

dead  railway  king  than  that  they    just  wanted  to  see 

it."    Some  declared  that  they  had  come  from  great 

distances  for  that  purpose  alone.    They  went  away 

and  returned  to  beg  again.  Yet  all  of  them  admitted 
4 


198 


GOULD  LAID  TO  REST. 


finally  that  they  had  never  known  Mr.  Gould  or  any 
of  the  family.  His  children  glanced  furtively  out  of 
the  windows  at  the  motley  crowd  and  gave  thanks 
that  the  early  intention  to  admit  the  public  had  been 
abandoned. 

The  throngs  began  to  gather  as  early  as  noon,  and 
by  I  o'clock  there  were  500  or  600  persons  near  the 
house.  For  some  time  the  policemen  kept  them  on 
the  west  side  of  the  street,  where  there  was  no  sun- 
shine and  where  it  was  chilly.  Yet  they  held  their 
positions. 

In  the  house  during  the  early  afternoon  Under- 
taker Main's  assistants  were  busy  arranging  camp 
chairs  in  the  two  parlors,  in  the  dining-room  in  the 
rear  of  the  house,  and  in  the  spacious  hallway. which 
runs  from  the  entrance  to  the  dining-room. 

The  body  of  Mr.  Gould  was  taken  from  the  tem- 
porary receptacle  in  which  it  had  been  lying  since 
Friday,  and  placed  in  the  oak  casket  covered  with 
black  broadcloth.  At  3  o'clock  it  was  carried  down 
stairs  and  placed  with  head  toward  the  east  on  a 
standard  in  front  of  a  broad  mirror  on  the  south 
wall  that  reached  from  floor  to  ceiling. 

In  the  hallway,  just  back  of  the  reception  room, 
to  the  left  of  the  entrance  and  alongside  the  stair- 
case, was  placed  a  small  organ,  in  front  of  which  the 
choir  of  Dr.  Paxton's  church  was  to  stand. 

Dr.  John  P.  Munn,  Mr.  Gould's  physician,  took 
up  his  position  in  the  vestibule  soon  after  3  o'clock. 
No  one  could  enter  unless  he  knew  them  or  unless 
they  presented  credentials  which  were  not  to  be 


GOULD  LAID  TO  REST. 


199 


questioned.  Owing  to  the  sagacity  of  Roundsman 
Bingham  of  the  East  Fifty-first  street  police  station 
and  a  number  of  central  office  detectives  and  police 
men  in  citizen's  dress,  not  a  great  many  reached  the 
doctor  whom  he  had  to  turn  away. 

One  gray-haired  woman,  by  exhibiting  a  card, 
got  by  the  policeman  and  reached  Dr.  Munn.  To 
him  she  said,  smiling  agreeably,  that  she  had  no 
wish  to  be  intrusive,  and  then  the  door  being  open 
she  sought  to  push  by  him.  Detective  McCloskey, 
of  the  central  office,  who  was  attending  the  door, 
closed  it,  and  a  policeman  appeared  just  then  and 
escorted  the  woman  down  to  the  street. 

Although  the  services  were  not  to  begin  until  4 
o'clock  the  friends  began  to  come  before  3.  After 
passing  the  policemen  at  the  entrance  and  Dr. 
Munn,  four  detectives  from  police  headquarters  were 
encountered.  Detective  Sergeant  Heidelberg  stood 
in  the  vestibule,  Detective  Sergeant  McCloske  in 
the  inner  hall  and  Detectives  Frink  and  Titus  near 
the  dining-room.  As  the  guests  were  admitted 
they  were  shown  through  the  hall  to  the  drawing- 
room.  There  they  formed  in  line  and  passed  by  the 
coffin  slov/ly,  so  that  each  could  get  a  view  of  the 
body,  and  then  passed  into  the  second  drawing- 
room  or  through  the  latter  to  the  hall  or  dining- 
room.  Three  ushers  found  seats  for  them.  None 
of  the  family  was  visible.  George  Gould  had  been 
down  earlier  in  the  day  and  had  received  some 
callers,  but  he  retired  before  the  first  of  the  funeral 
guests  arrived.    He  and  the  other  members  of  the 


200 


GOULD  LAID  TO  REST. 


immediate  family,  Abraham  Gould,  Mrs.  Northrup 
and  Mrs.  Palen,  and  their  children,  were  gathered  in 
the  hall  of  the  second  story,  where  they  could  hear 
the  music  and  prayers  without  being  seen  by  those 
below.  Some  remoter  relatives  and  their  friends 
sat  in  the  rear  of  the  second  drawing-room.  The 
dining-room  was  filled  first,  and  here  the  directors 
of  the  Union  Pacific,  the  Manhattan  Elevated  and 
the  Missouri  Pacific  railroads  and  the  Western 
Union  Telegraph  Company  were  seated. 

The  shades  were  drawn  in  all  the  rooms  and  the 
electric  lights  were  turned  on.  At  3:30  o'clock  the 
second  drawing-room,  the  dining-room  and  the  hall 
were  filled.  Everybody  sat  silent  during  the  half 
hour  that  elapsed  before  the  services  began.  The 
only  man  who  spoke  at  all,  and  he  confined  himself 
to  whispers,  was  Russell  Sage.  Except  the  coffin, 
the  object  that  attracted  the  most  attention  was  the 
oil  portrait  of  Jay  Gould,  which  hung  against  the 
rear  wall  of  the  dining-room.  All  in  that  room  and 
many  in  the  hall  could  see  it,  and  their  eyes  were 
turned  toward  it  a  large  part  of  the  time.  It  had 
been  painted  before  Mr.  Gould's  illness,  and  looked 
utterly  unlike  the  face  in  the  coffin.  Instead  of  the 
expression  of  peace  and  indifference  which  marked 
the  latter,  there  shown  out  from  the  countenance  of 
the  portrait  a  look  of  triumph.  The  face  of  the 
dead  man  was  commonplace  beside  that  in  the  gilt 
frame. 

The  hour  set  for  the  beginning  of  the  services, 
four  o'clock,  was  indicated  to  those  seated  in  the 


WHFKE  JAV  GOULD  RESTS 


GOULD  LAID  TO  REST. 


201 


parlors  and  halls  and  to  the  members  of  the  family 
who  were  on  the  second  floor,  first  by  four  cheerful, 
jingling  strokes  of  a  Swiss  clock  in  the  dining-room, 
and  then  by  four  sonorous  and  vibrating  sounds  from 
the  large  clock  in  the  rear  parlor. 

Pastor  John  R.  Paxton  walked  to  the  reception 
room  and  escorted  the  Rev.  Roderick  Terry,  pastor 
of  the  South  Reformed  church,  which  Mrs.  Jay 
Gould  attended,  and  Chancellor  MacCracken  of  the 
University  of  the  City  of  New  York,  to  seats  near  the 
doorway  of  the  parlor,  about  half  way  down  the  hall. 

Dr.  Paxton  took  his  place  in  this  doorway,  facing 
those  in  the  hall.  At  his  right,  and  at  the  head  of 
those  who  sat  in  the  hall,  were  Chauncey  M.  Depew, 
who  observed  the  ceiling  contemplatively  during 
the  ceremony,  and  Collis  P.  Huntington,  who  wore 
a  skull  cap  and  looked  steadily  and  intently  at  the 
hall  carpet. 

The  opening  strains  of  the  anthem,  "There  is  a 
Land  Immortal,"  were  played  by  Organist  and  Mu- 
sical Director  P.  A.  Schnecker  at  4:05  p.  m.,  and  the 
singing  was  by  Mrs.  Charles  Herbert  Clarke,  so- 
prano, who  took  the  place  of  Mme.  Clementine  De 
Vere-Sapio,  the  regular  choir  soprano,  w^ho  was  in- 
disposed; Mrs.  Carl  Alves,  contralto;  Charles  Her- 
bert Clarke,  tenor,  and  Ericcson  F.  Bushnell,  bass. 
Extemporaneous  prayer,  in  which  only  the  Presby- 
terian service  differs  from  that  of  the  Episcopal 
church,  was  offered  by  Dr.  Paxton  in  these  words: 

**Oh,  eloquent,  just  and  mighty  Death,  whom 
none  couldst  outwit  thou  takest  in  thy  toils;  whom 


202 


GOULD  LAID  TO  REST. 


none  could  convince  thou  persuadeth;  whom  none- 
could  overthrow  thou  subdueth — mighty  Death! 

"Dire  discouragement  of  human  end,  we  bless  God 
for  our  Christian  faith  in  which  Jesus  Christ  hath 
abolished  death.  We  bless  Thee  that  He  plucked 
the  stain  from  sin,  that  He  robbed  the  grave  of  its 
victory,  and  that  He  filled  the  heavens  with  the 
ministrations  of  our  heavenly  hope  in  this  splendor, 
where  we  hope  to  renew  life  beyond  the  tomb. 

"We  bless  Thee,  Heavenly  Father,  for  Thy  Son 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  for  our  knowledge  that  the 
grave  is  not  a  dungeon  but  a  door  opening  into  other 
worlds  and  a  new  and  higher  life.  We  bless  Thee 
that  the  grave  is  not  a  terminus,  the  final  resting  place, 
the  be-all  and  end-all  of  man,  but  that  it  is  only  the 
stopping  place,  an  inn  where  we  humble  travelers 
sleep  the  long  sweet  sleep  on  our  w^ay  to  the  New 
Jerusalem. 

"May  the  Divine  Spirit  be  present  with  us  in 
these  sad  solemn  services,  and  may  the  light  of  the 
resurrection  morn  shine  into  this  darkened  and 
bereaved  house,  and  may  comfort,  that  with  which 
God  comforteth  His  own,  touch  with  heavenly  and 
hopeful  grace  the  hearts  of  our  friends  here,  wounded 
and  bleeding  still  for  the  loss  of  him  they  all  loved 
so  well.  Amen." 

Dn  Paxton  read  that  part  of  the  service  begin- 
ning, "  I  am  the  resurrection  and  the  life,"  and  the 
quartet  sang  the  beautiful  hymn  of  Cardinal  New- 
man, "Lead,  Kindly  Light,  Amid  the  Encircling 
Gloom."  Then  the  Rev.  Mr.  Terry  read  the  second 
part  of  the  burial  service,  at  the  conclusion  of  which 
Chancellor  MacCracken  offered  prayer  as  follows: 

"O,  Father,  Thou  only  art  perfectly  wise,  kind, 
just,  true  and  good.    Therefore  it  is  that  our  hearts 


GOULD  LAID  TO  REST. 


203 


turn  to  Thee  in  this  trying  hour.  Strengthen  us  now. 
Quicken  our  hearts  in  faith,  that  we  may  strive  to 
be  like  Thee.  Make  us,  as  Thou  hast  commanded  us 
to  be,  steadfast  and  immovable,  and  always  abound- 
ing in  the  work  of  the  Lord. 

"O  Father,  pity  those  that  mourn  here.  Have 
special  compassion  on  the  children  of  this  home, 
whom  Thou  hast  sorely  grieved.  Because  Thou  hast 
taken  from  the  children  of  this  family  both  father 
and  mother,  do  Thou  comfort  them.  Thou  Divine 
Comforter.  Grant  unto  them  faith,  hope  and  love, 
Thy  Divine  special  gifts.  Grant  unto  these  bereaved 
ones  the  peace  which  this  world,  with  all  its  treas- 
ures, does  not  give." 

"Nearer,  My  God,  to  Thee"  was  then  sung,  after 
which  Dr.  Paxton  announced  that  the  services  would 
be  concluded  at  the  grave  in  Woodlawn  cemetery 
the  following  day  by  Chancellor  MacCracken. 

He  invited  those  present  to'take  a  look  at  their 
departed  friend,  whose  soul  had  gone  to  its  Maker. 
The  line  formed  in  the  rear  of  the  parlor  and  marched 
slowly  by  the  casket,  the  upper  part  of  the  cover  of 
which  had  been  removed. 

Among  those  who  attended  the  services  were  the 
following: 

Representing  the  Manhattan  Elevated  Company 
— Second  Vice-President  and  General  Manager  F. 
K.  Hain,  Secretary  and  Treasurer  D.  W.  McWilliams, 
Julien  T.  Davies  and  Charles  A.  Gardiner,  the  com- 
pany's counsel. 

Representing  the  Western  Union  Telegraph  Com- 
pany— President  Norvin  Green,  Vice-President  and 
General  Manager  Thomas  T.  Eckert,  Vice-Presidents 


204 


GOULD  LAID  TO  REST, 


John  Van  Horne  and  Robert  C.  Clowry,  Treasurer 
R.  H.  Rochester,  and  William  B.  Somerville,  Super- 
intendent of  the  Press  Service. 

Representing  the  Missouri  Pacific  Railroad  Com- 
pany— First  Vice-President  and  General  Manager 
S.  PI.  H.  Clark,  Assistant  General  Manager  George 
C.  Smith,  Secretary  and  Treasurer  A.  H.  Calef,  Local 
Treasurer  D.  S.  H.  Smith,  General  Auditor  C.  G. 
Warner,  General  Attorney  for  Western  States  B.  P. 
W'aggener,  General  Solicitor  A.  G.  Cochran,  and 
John  C.  Wands. 

Representing  the  Union  Pacific — Vice-President 
E.  F.  Atkins,  Director  Frederick  L.  Ames,  Secretary 
Alexander  Miller,  Treasurer  James  G.  Harris,  and 
Controller  Oliver  W.  Mink  of  Boston,  and  Director 
Joseph  H.  Millard  of  Omaha. 

J.  B.  Houston,  Vice-President  of  the  Pacific  Mail 
Steamship  Company,  and  Mrs.  Houston;  Austin 
Corbin,  President  of  the  Long  Island  Railroad  Com- 
pany and  a  Western  Union  Director;  S.  W.  Fordyce, 
President  of  the  St.  Louis  Southwestern  Railway 
Company;  John  G.  Moore,  a  Director  of  the  Missouri 
Pacific  road;  Henry  B.  Hyde,  President  of  the 
Equitable  Life  Assurance  Society  and  a  Union  Pacific 
Director;  George  G.  Williams,  President  of  the 
Chemical  National  Bank;  J.  Edward  Simmons, 
President  of  the  Fourth  National  Bank;  Edward  H. 
Perkins,  Jr.,  President  of  the  Importers'  and  Traders' 
National  Bank;  A.  S.  Frissell,  President  of  the  Fifth 
Avenue  National  Bank;  ex-Judge  John  F.  Dillon; 
W.  B.  Doddridge,  a  Director  of  the  St.  Louis  South- 


GOULD  LAID  TO  REST. 


205 


western  Railway;  Washington  E.  Connor,  Gould's 
former  partner;  Samuel  Sloan,  President  of  the  Dela- 
ware, Lackawanna  and  Western  Railroad  Company 
and  a  Director  of  the  Missouri  Pacific  and  Western 
Union  companies. 

Chauncey  M.  Depew,  President,  and  H.  Walter 
Webb,  Third  Vice-President,  of  the  New  York  Cen- 
tral and  Hudson  River  Railroad;  H.  G.  Marquand, 
CoUis  P.  Huntington,  a  Director  of  the  Western 
Union  Telegraph  Company;  John  Bigelow,  Addi- 
son Cammack,  Henry  Villard,  Henry  Clews,  Simon 
Wormser,  a  Director  of  the  Max:hattan  Elevated 
Company;  Herbert  H.  Dickson,  Mr.  Gould's  per- 
sonal lawyer;  J.  Pierpont  Morgan,  a  Western  Union 
Du-ector;  William  H.  Blackford,  representative  of 
Charles  F.  Mayer,  President  of  the  Baltimore  and 
Ohio  Railroad;  Whitelaw  Reid,  John  H.  Inman, 
William  D.  Bishop,  of  New  Haven,  a  Western  Union 
Director;  Jesse  Seligman,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  James  Selig- 
man,  Mrs.  Helman,  Dr.  Virgil  P.  Gibney  and  mother, 
Dr.  Jarrett  Baldwin,  Mrs.  B.  S.  Clark,  ex-Senator  and 
Mrs.  John  J.  Kiernan,  Judge  Rufus  B.  Cowing,  of  the 
Court  of  General  Sessions;  Dr.  Matthew  D.  Field, 
Sidney  Dillon  Ripley,  William  H.  Kissam,  J.  Seaver 
Page,  ex-Governor  Alonzo  B.  Cornell,  a  Western 
Union  Director;  J.  H.  Villard,  Alexander  Miller, 
Frank  Kernan,  J.  M.  Morgan,  James  Gurnie,  John 
D.  Crimmins,  J.  C.  Pierce,  Gen.  G.  M.  Dodge,  A.  S. 
Hopkins,  Gen.  Louis  Fitzgerald,.  Ogden  Mills,  C.  C. 
Baldwin,  F.  K.  Sturgis,  Cornelius  N.  Bliss,  Benjamin 
Brewster,  William  Rockefeller,  E.  P.  Vining,  Maug- 


206 


GOULD  LAID  TO  REST. 


han  Carter,  a  relative  of  Mrs.  Gould,  and  Reid 
Northrup  and  Daniel  Northrup,  nephews  of  Mr. 
Gould. 

Every  one  of  those  who  saw  the  face  remarked 
aftervvard  upon  its  extreme  naturalness.  The  beard 
had  been  cut  rather  shorter  than  Mr.  Gould  wore  it 
in  life,  and  that  and  the  displacement  of  the  swarthi- 
ness  of  his  complexion  by  the  death  pallor  were  the 
only  changes  in  his  appearance.  The  many  rare 
flowers  were  placed  surrounding  the  casket.  The 
most  beautiful  was  a  floral  cross  which  Miss  Helen 
Gould  had  ordered.  It  was  composed  of  pink 
orchids  tied  with  a  silk  ribbon,  and  was  placed  on 
top  of  the  coflin.  Next  to  it  was  a  bunch  of  bride 
roses  from  Howard  Gould.  A  five-foot  broken 
column  of  white  roses,  crowned  by  violets,  with  the 
word  "Father"  in  violets  at  the  base,  stood  at  the 
head  of  the  coflin  on  a  table.  It  was  from  George 
Gould.  Miss  Annie  Gould  sent  a  bunch  of  white 
orchids,  Edwin  Gould  a  wreath  of  lilies  of  the  valley, 
bride  roses  and  orchids;  Frank  Gould  a  bunch  of 
lilies  of  the  valley  and  orchids,  and  George  Gould's 
children  an  enormous  pillow  of  orchids,  roses,  lilies 
of  the  valley  and  violets,  with  the  word  "Grandpa" 
in  the  center.  This  rested  on  the  floor  beneath  the 
coffln. 

A  handsome  wreath  of  lilies  of  the  valley, 
orchids  and  bride  roses  was  received  from  Mrs. 
Hall  of  559  Fifth  avenue.  Mrs.  Herbert  sent  a 
bunch  of  lilies  of  the  valley  and  roses.  Gen.  Thomas 
Eckert  sent  a  wreath  of  orchids  and  roses.  Mrs. 


GOULD  LAID  TO  REST. 


207 


Dillon  Brown  sent  a  bunch  of  lilies  of  the  valley  and 
orchids.  J.  B.  Houston  sent  a  full-rigged  ship  made 
of  lilies  of  the  valley,  roses  and  violets,  with  two 
flags  flying  and  this  inscription  in  violets:  "The 
Voyage  Ended— Safe  in  Port."  The  ship  was  placed 
on  a  gilt  cabinet  in  the  northeast  corner,  and  the 
other  pieces  were  disposed  about  the  room.  A  large 
number  of  persons  had  been  expected,  and  arrange- 
ments had  been  made  accordingly.  Many  camp 
chairs  had  been  piled  up  in  the  hall,  the  second 
drawing-room  and  the  dining-room. 

After  all  the  visitors  had  gone,  the  members  of 
the  family,  including  Mr.  Gould's  brother,  Abraham, 
and  his  sisters,  Mrs.  Palen  and  Mrs.  Northrup,  took 
a  last  look  at  the  features,  and  the  casket  was 
closed. 

Although  it  grew  bitterly  cold  in  the  late  after- 
noon, the  crowd  outside  did  not  diminish  while  the 
services  were  in  progress.  Occasionally  the  onlook- 
ers crowded  up  to  the  gates  so  that  the  four  uni- 
formed policemen  had  to  get  together  and  push 
them  back.  A  picturesque  feature,  but  by  no  means 
a  pleasant  one,  was  the  presence  of  several  unwashed, 
long-haired  individuals,  supposedly  Anarchists,  rag- 
gedly clothed  and  with  red  cotton  neckerchiefs,  who 
stood  muttering  and  cursing  to  themselves  and  glar- 
ing fixedly  upon  the  house. 

A  wily  speculator  had  obtained  possession  of 
some  visiting  cards  of  Edwin  Gould,  and  had  sold 
them  at  a  premium.  Many  of  his  customers  pre- 
sented these  to  the  policemen,  and  they  seemed 


208 


GOULD  LAID  TO  REST. 


quite  surprised  and  chagrined  when  they  were  told 
they  would  not  be  recognized. 

One  elderly  woman,  in  a  black  bombazine  dress, 
with  an  old-fashioned  bonnet,  became  extremely 
indignant  because  she  was  not  allowed  to  enter  the 
mansion.  She  said  she  lived  "up  in  the  state,"  and 
that  she  had  traveled  sixty  miles  especially  to  attend 
the  funeral  of  Jay  Gould.  "It  is  a  shame,"  she  cried, 
waving  a  rusty  parasol  and  speaking  to  the  crowd  in 
the  street.  "They're  rich  enough.  Why  didn't  they 
hire  a  church?" 

Another  peculiarity  about  the  sidewalk  specta- 
tors was  that  nearly  all  the  men  and  boys  were 
either  German  or  Russian,  while  the  greater  part  of 
the  women  were  also  foreigners.  The  crowd  climbed 
up  the  stoops  of  the  adjoining  and  neighboring  res- 
idences until  they  were  driven  away  by  servants 
with  the  aid  of  the  police.  Every  time  the  great 
glass  doors  opened  at  the  Gould  residence  there  was 
a  craning  of  necks  and  a  rush  for  the  stoop.  There 
was  absolutely  nothing  to  be  seen  except  the  under- 
taker's assistants. 

One  woman  told  a  little  circle  around  her  that 
she  had  seen  the  casket,  and  seemed  very  proiid  of 
her  achievement  and  the  distinction  which  it  con- 
ferred upon  her  in  the  eyes  of  her  auditors. 

During  all  this  time  Fifth  avenue  was  crowded 
with  handsome  equipages  of  all  kinds  going  to  and 
from  the  park.  Among  those  who  drove  by  were 
John  Jacob  Astor  and  his  wife  in  a  stylish  drag. 
Neither  the  Anarchists  nor  the  other  spectators 


GOULD  LAID  TO  REST. 


recognized  them,  or  there  might  have  been,  judg- 
ing from  the  character  of  the  crowd,  some  un- 
pleasant demonstration.  The  police,  however,  were 
very  alert,  and  kept  a  watchful  eye  upon  every 
movement  of  the  crowd. 

The  majority  of  the  men  who  attended  the  fu- 
neral walked  to  and  from  the  house.  When  the 
services  were  over  and  the  doors  were  opened,  the 
first  to  step  out  were  H.  Walter  Webb  and  Chaun- 
cey  M.  Depew.  Mr.  Depew  was,  of  course,  recog- 
nized, but  Whitelaw  Reid,  who  followed  him,  was  not. 
As  the  guests  came  out  of  the  house  the  police  still 
had  some  difficulty  in  keeping  the  crowd  back.  A 
number  of  women  fell  into  line,  expecting  that  they 
would  be  admitted  to  the  house  as  soon  as  the  in- 
vited guests  had  departed.  Finding  that  this  was 
not  the  case,  they  lingered  for  a  few  minutes  and 
then  slowly  went  their  way.  In  fifteen  minutes  the 
crowd  disappeared  entirely,  and  the  avenue  resumed 
its  normal  appearance. 

The  following  morning  the  remains  of  Jay  Gould 
were  placed  beside  those  of  his  wife  in  the  mau- 
soleum in  Woodlawn  cemetery.  They  were  placed 
in  a  catacomb  at  just  half  past  twelve.  Barring  the 
irreverent  chatter  of  the  idle  onlookers,  nearly  all  of 
whom  were  women,  no  words  were  uttered  except 
by  Chancellor  MacCracken.  A  crowd  gathered  in 
front  of  the  Gould  residence  early  this  morning. 
Two  policemen  kept  them  back,  and  they  stood 
around  and  looked  angry.  At  9:30  t^ie  flowers  were 
taken  to  the  cemetery.    Soon  after  lo  o'clock  th^ 


210 


GOULD  LAID  TO  REST. 


hearse  and  eight  carriages  appeared.  It  was  an 
extremely  plain  hearse  and  the  carriages,  except 
George  Gould's  smart  brougham,  were  of  the  ordin- 
ary four-wheeled  funeral  variety.  The  immediate 
members  of  the  family  entered  them  and  Undertaker 
Main,  alone  in  a  carriage,  led  the  way  up  Fifth  avenue 
to  the  cemetery.  After  the  brief  services  were  over 
the  mourners  departed. 

The  mausoleum  in  Woodlawn  cemetery  in  which 
the  dead  multi-millionaire  is  resting  is  more  mag- 
nificent and  costly  than  the  homes  of  many  people 
whose  money  paid  for  it.  The  station  on  the  New 
York  and  Harlem  river  railroad  is  near  the  north- 
east corner  of  the  cemetery.  Central  avenue  goes 
by  the  office  of  the  superintendent  and  winds 
through  the  snowy  slopes  for  about  half  a  mile. 
About  fifty  feet  from  this  avenue  rises  a  mound 
crowned  by  a  tiny  Greek  temple.  That  is  Jay 
Gould's  tomb. 

The  plot  of  ground  is  circular  and  contains  30,- 
000  square  feet.  The  price  of  ground  in  such  a  se- 
lect location  is  $2  per  square  foot,  so  the  space  alone 
cost  $60,000. 

Before  the  work  began  Mr.  Gould  made  three 
stipulations  about  the  construction  of  the  mausoleum. 
First,  that  it  should  be  built  as  strongly  and  as  mass- 
ively as  possible;  second,  that  it  should  not  be  pre- 
tentiously large;  third,  that  as  great  simplicity  as 
possible  in  the  construction  should  be  observed. 
Upon  this  last  point  Mr.  Gould  laid  the  greatest 
stress. 


GOULD  LAID  TO  REST. 


211 


The  mausoleum  is  built  throughout  of  westerly 
granite.  It  is  thirty-three  feet  long,  twenty-two  feet 
wide  and  twenty  feet  high  to  the  apex  of  the  roof. 
It  is  often  said  to  be  a  copy  of  the  Parthenon,  but  that 
is  not  true.  The  Parthenon  was  a  Doric  structure ;  this 
is  Ionic.  The  technical  name  of  the  building  would 
be  a  Greek  hexastyle,  peripteral  temple.  It  has  six 
columns  in  front  and  eleven  columns  on  each  side 
in  single  rows.  In  its  proportions  and  many  of  its 
details  it  is  more  like  the  old  temple  of  Theseus,  at 
Athens,  than  any  ancient  building  extant. 

Three  rows  of  steps  run  up  to  the  temple  on  all 
sides  and  form  its  base.  Between  the  columns  and 
the  walls  of  the  temple  is  a  considerable  space. 
Columns  and  walls  are  bare,  without  the  faintest 
attempt  at  ornamentation. 

In  the  center  of  the  row  of  columns  facing  the 
south  it  looks  as  if  a  column  had  been  removed  to 
make  a  broad  passageway.  Facing  this  opening  is 
the  double  door  of  the  tomb.  Each  section  of  this 
door  is  eight  feet  high  and  two  feet  wide,  and  weighs 
a  ton.  The  doors  are  of  heavy  bronze,  and  the 
lower  part  is  paneled  and  ornamented  on  the  out- 
side with  two  dragons'  heads,  a  big  iron  ring  swing- 
ing in  the  mouth  of  each  dragon.  The  upper  part 
of  the  doors  is  a  fretwork  of  cherubs  and  vines, 
through  the  opening  of  which  the  interior  of  the 
crypt  can  be  seen. 

Peering  through  the  interstices  one  may  see  the 
narrow  hall  lined  with  polished  Tennessee  marbles. 
The  pavement  is  of  tesselat^d  marble  in  three  shades, 

14 


212 


GOULD  LAID  TO  REST. 


a  creamy  yellow,  a  pale  pink  and  a  pale  violet.  The 
body  of  the  floor  is  in  the  pale  violet,  with  two 
brands  of  the  pink  and  yellow  crossing  it. 

The  interior  is  20  feet  long,  7  feet  wide  and  13 
feet  high.  Its  roof  is  a  solid  slab  of  granite,  which 
weighs  six  tons.  The  border  of  the  ceiling  is  paneled 
with  egg  and  dart  moulding.  The  floor  is  one  plain 
marble  slab.  Along  the  sides  of  the  interior  are  the 
catacombs.  Of  these  there  are  twenty,  ten  on  each 
side,  in  double  rows.  The  rows  are  separated  from 
each  other  by  granite  slabs.  Each  catacomb  is  73^ 
feet  long  and  2}^  feet  wide.  Between  the  lower  end 
of  the  catacombs  and  the  outside  of  the  wall  of  the 
tomb  is  a  thickness  of  18  inches.  The  outer  part  of 
this  thickness  is,  of  course,  granite,  but  facing  the 
interior  the  walls  are  of  light  pink  and  cream-col- 
ored Tennessee  marble,  highly  polished.  The  light 
enters  the  crypt  through  a  stained  glass  window  in 
the  back.  This  window,  which  is  6  feet  high  and  3 
feet  wide,  pictures  a  choir  of  angels.  . 

The  roof  of  the  mausoleum  consists  of  granite 
slabs  32  feet  long,  each  weighing  15  tons,  and  so 
placed  together  that  they  overlap,  making  the  roof 
waterproof.  The  whole  temple  weighs  about  300 
tons,  and  rests  on  a  solid  concrete  foundation  8  feet 
thick. 

The  second  rear  catacomb  from  the  bottom,  on 
the  left-hand  side  entering  the  tomb,  is  that  of  Mrs. 
Gould,  who  died  January  13,  1889,  and  was  interred 
January  i6th.  The  letters  "Emily  Day  Miller,  wife  of 
Jay  Gould,"  with  the  dates  of  her  birth  and  d^ath, 


GOULD  LAID  TO  REST. 


213 


are  in  high  relief  on  the  polished  slab.  Mrs.  Gould's 
body  is  the  only  one  in  the  mausoleum. 

The  tomb  was  completed  in  1883,  and  cost  $$0,- 
000.    Land  and  all  it  cost  $110,000. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 


M' 


PERSONAL  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  JAY  GOULD. 

UCH  of  the  interest  in  the  life  and  career  of 
Mr.  Gould  is  in  regard  to  his  personal  charac- 
teristics and  qualifications,  and  much  that  is  to  be 
learned  from  his  life  is  to  be  gained  from  the  study 
of  the  same  circumstances.  The  varying  opinions 
regarding  him  are  perhaps  more  widely  different 
than  those  concerning  any  other  great  financier. 
As  has  been  said,  there  are  those  who  see  in  him  all 
that  was  ideal  in  the  character  of  a  powerful  money 
monarch.  There  are  more  whose  criticisms  can  not 
be  made  too  scathing,  whose  denunciations  can  not 
be  made  too  strong.  In  an  impartial  history,  all 
such  opinions  must  be  represented. 

It  is  a  relief  to  turn  from  the  record  of  Gould's 
public  career  to  the  contemplation  of  his  private 
life.  As  has  already  been  said,  in  all  his  domestic 
relations  Gould  was  a  model  man.  He  had  no 
habits  but  that  of  hard  work  and  home  enjoyments. 
He  did  not  use  tobacco  in  any  form.  He  rarely,  if 
ever,  sipped  a  glass  of  wine.  Social  scandal  never 
attached  to  his  name.  He  loved  his  home.  When 
not  in  his  of¥ice  he  was  with  his  family.  He  owned 
a  box  at  the  opera,  but  when  he  attended  his  family 
always  accompanied  him.    He  belonged  to  no  social 


PERSONAL  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  JAY  GOULD.     21 5 


clubs.  He  did  not  add  the  excitement  of  the  turf 
to  the  excitement  of  the  Stock  Exchange.  On  his 
return  from  a  journey  his  first  questions  were  of  the 
welfare  of  his  family.  He  made  his  home  as  beau- 
tiful as  wealth,  refinement  and  purity  could  make  it. 
He  loved  his  children,  the  sweet  discourse  of  the 
fireside  and  the  companionship  of  books  and  flowers. 
There  was  no  attempt  at  display,  but  everything  he 
possessed  was  the  best.  Neither  he  nor  his  wife 
had  any  ambition  for  society  distinction.  They 
gave  no  great  balls  and  rarely  were  they  present  at 
"society  events."  They  had  none  of  the  vulgar 
traits  of  the  parvenu  or  prejudices  of  the  aristocrat. 
When  his  son  wished  to  marry  an  actress  Mr.  Gould 
interposed  no  objection,  and  even  approved  the 
choice,  declaring  his  pleasure  that  his  son  had  se- 
lected a  respectable  woman  who  was  able  to  earn  her 
own  living.  Perhaps  his  devotion  to  his  family  was 
due  in  part  to  the  fact  that  his  public  career  placed 
him  apart  from  other  men  and  made  him  an  object 
of  fear  and  hatred.  He  was  an  exile  from  the 
sympathies  of  his  fellowmen.  But  he  uttered  no 
complaint,  and  found  in  his  family  full  solace  for 
any  loss  of  friendships  he  may  have  incurred.  The 
members  of  his  family  were  his  only  intimate 
friends. 

Mr.  Gould  was  never  a  robust  person.  He  was 
below  medium  height,  thin,  nervous  and  reticent. 
His  hair,  beard  and  eyes  were  jet  black.  He  was 
fastidious  in  dress,  and  never  approached  the 
gaucheries  that  marked  and  marred  his  lieutenant, 


2l6     PERSONAL  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  JAY  GOULD. 


Fisk.  Gould  was  all  brain  and  nerve,  Fisk  all  drive 
and  muscle.  Although  quiet,  imperturbable  and 
indisposed  to  confidences,  Mr.  Gould's  expression 
was  by  no  means  unpleasant.  On  the  contrary  he 
was,  in  a  sense,  companionable.  He  was  extremely 
fond  of  home  comforts  and  never  permitted  busi- 
ness to  interfere  with  his  two  o'clock  dinner  or  his 
afternoon  drive.  In  manner  he  was  kind  and  gentle. 
Never  averse  to  give  an  opinion,  unless  it  interfered 
with  a  plan,  he  was  careful  not  to  obtrude  one.  He 
was  not  accessible  to  strangers  for  obvious  reasons, 
but  his  family  and  friends  testify  to  the  unvarying 
courtesy  of  his  manner  and  the  rare  beauty  of  his 
temper.  He  was  always  more  or  less  troubled  with 
sleeplessness  and  often  paced  the  floor,  tearing  let- 
ters or  papers  to  bits,  as  he  thought  out  schemes 
for  making  money.  Making  money  was  his  passion. 
He  was  not  ostentatious  in  living  and  spent  compar- 
atively little.  He  rarely  put  his  name  on  subscrip- 
tion papers  and,  justly  or  not,  he  did  not  enjoy  the 
reputation  of  liberality.  He  was  often  seen  in  the 
park  with  his  wife,  his  son  or  driver,  and  invariably 
looked  straight  ahead.  He  ate  moderately  and  never 
drank  wine  save  at  dinner.  Now  and  then  he 
attended  the  opera,  and  in  the  days  of  Sweeny  and 
Tweed  would  occasionally  join  them  in  the  recesses 
of  a  private  "box.  Mr.  Gould  was  not  exactly  a 
selfish  man.  He  was  too  intelligent  to  hate  and  too 
unsympathetic  to  love  very  strongly.  He  produced 
the  impression  of  extreme  intellectuality;  indeed, 


PERSONAL  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  JAY  GOULD.  21/ 


leaving  out  the  affectionate  element,  he  was  feminine 
in  nature,  with  marked  intuitive  perceptions. 

Slight  of  stature  and  frame,  and  feeble  in  body, 
with  a  high-strung,  nervous  organization,  a  rebellious 
stomach  and  flesh-plagued  with  the  neuralgia — such 
was  Mr.  Gould  as  he  appeared  in  the  later  years  of  his 
life.  His  deceit  and  far-reaching  were  the  result, 
largely,  of  his  frailty  and  timidity.  In  appearance 
what  a  meek,  mild-looking  man  he  was!  Strangers 
to  whom  he  was  pointed  out  would  exclaim: 
"What,  that  Jay  Gould!  Well,  I  never  would  have 
thought  it."  About  five  feet  six  inches  in  height 
and  of  slender  figure, .he  was  not  an  imposing  per- 
sonage. His  complexion  was  swarthy,  his  eyes 
dark  and  piercing;  his  closely-trimmed  whiskers 
black  and  streaked  with  gray;  his  forehead  dome- 
shaped  and  his  hair  rather  thin — such  was  Jay  Gould. 
His  voice  was  very  low  and  mild.  When  a  witness 
in  courts  and  before  committees,  as  he  frequently 
was,  it  was  with  the  greatest  difficulty  that  he  could 
be  heard.  But  when  once  in  close  contact  with  him  one 
soon  came  under  the  spell  of  his  intellect.  His  com- 
prehension was  wide,  his  intuition  wonderful,  his  judg- 
ment almost  unerring.  He  was  a  close  student  when 
once  he  took  up  a  subject.  He  never  ceased  until 
he  had  thoroughly  mastered  it  in  every  detail.  This 
was  the  secret  of  his  success.  Henry  Ward  Beecher 
once  defined  genius  as  the  power  and  willingness  to 
work  long  and  hard,  and  under  this  definition  Mr. 
Gould  was  a  man  of  genius.  Though  not  by  any 
means  wholly  bad,  he  was  a  dangerous  man.  His 


2l8      PERSONAL  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  JAY  GOULD. 

life  was  a  menace  to  his  country.  His  successes 
were  demoralizing  to  the  young.  He  looked  like  a 
premium  on  dishonesty,  a  reversal  of  the  old  adage 
that  "honesty  is  the  best  policy." 

No  just  estimate  of  Mr.  Gould  can  be  formed  with- 
out taking  into  consideration  the  fact  that  he  lived  in  a 
time  and  country  in  which  corruption  in  politics  and 
business  was  widespread.  The  great  mass  of  the  peo- 
ple were  honest,  but  municipal  government  was  the 
most  corrupt  ever  known.  Bribery  walked  the  streets 
of  the  national  and  state  capitals,  and  "jobs"  were 
behind  nearly  every  public  undertaking.  It  was  a 
period,  on  the  one  hand,  of  glorious  achievement  and 
extraordinary  development,  and,  on  the  other  hand, 
of  venality,  deceit  and  dishonesty.  The  besetting 
temptation  of  the  times  was  the  desire  to  get  rich — 
enormously  rich — suddenly.  Mr.  Gould  may  be 
said  to  have  been  little  if  any  worse  than  most  of  his 
contemporaries  in  business.  His  triumphs  were,  for 
the  most  part,  over  men  who  would  have  ruined  him 
if  he  had  not  ruined  them. 

In  regard  to  himself,  he  once  said  when  told  that 
he  was  the  most  unpopular  man  in  the  United  States: 

"I  never  notice  what  is  said  about  me.  I  am 
credited  with  things  I  have  never  done  and  abused 
for  them.  It  would  be  idle  to  attempt  to  contradict 
newspaper  talk  and  street  rumors.  As  to  enemies, 
any  man  in  my  position  is  likely  to  have  them. 
With  me  the  bitterest  enemies  have  always  proved 
to  be  men  to  whom  I  had  rendered  services.  As  a 
general  thing,  I  do  my  best  to  be  on  good  terms 


PERSONAL  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  JAY  GOULD.  2ig 


with  everybody  I  come  in  contact  with.  I  am  not 
of  a  quarrelsome  disposition.  But,  on  the  other 
hand,  I  have  the  disadvantage  of  not  being  sociable. 
Wall  street  men  are  fond  of  company  and  sport. 
A  man  makes  $100,000  there  and  immediately  buys 
a  yacht,  begins  to  drive  fast  horses,  and  becomes  a 
sport  generally.  My  tastes  lie  in  a  different  direc- 
tion. When  business  hours  are  over  I  go  home  and 
spend  the  remainder  of  the  day  with  my  wife,  my 
children,  and  the  books  of  my  library.  Every  man 
has  natural  inclinations  of  his  own.  Mine  are 
domestic.  They  are  not  calculated  to  make  me  par- 
ticularly popular  in  Wall  street,  and  I  cannot  help 
that." 

The  day  after  his  death,  his  friends  had  only  one 
word  to  say  as  to  the  qualities  in  the  dead  man 
which  commanded  a  tribute  from  them — his  ability, 
his  foresight,  his  wonderful  patience  in  the  working 
out  of  his  aims,  his  fidelity  to  friends,  his  good  faith 
with  his  business  associates  and  his  generosity  %o 
subordinate  workers.  Mr.  Morosini,  speaking  of 
his  dead  friend  and  former  employer,  with  whom 
he  had  been  associated  for  a  longer  period,  and  per- 
haps more  continuously  and  in  some  respects  more 
intimately,  than  any  other  man  in  New  York,  said: 

"Mr.  Gould  was  one  of  the  most  lovable  men  I 
ever  knew.  It  was  a  pleasure  to  serve  him.  He 
was  very  appreciative,  and  never  imposed  a  needless 
task  upon  any  one.  In  the  office  he  always  took  things 
easily  and  coolly.  There  was  never  any  hurry  or 
confusion.    In  his  family  he  was  the  best  of  hus- 


220     PERSONAL  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  JAY  GOULD. 


bands,  and  I  never  knew  a  man  who  loved  his  chil- 
dren with  such  intensity  as  he  did.  He  seemed  to 
worship  them  all.  He  was  a  very  companionable 
man,  and  there  was  a  great  deal  of  humor  in  his  dis- 
position. While  he  was  not  given  to  telling  stories 
or  cracking  jokes  himself,  he  enjoyed  hearing  others 
do  so  and  would  laugh  as  heartily  as  the  rest.  He 
was  very  abstemious  in  his  habits,  but  was  excep- 
tionally fond  of  coffee.  Now  and  then  he  would 
sip  a  little  wine,  but  he  rarely  took  more  than  a 
spoonful  at  any  time.  My  opinion  is  that  his  sys- 
tem gave  way  under  the  great  strain  resulting  from 
the  consciousness  of  his  immense  wealth.  It  was  a 
tremendous  care,  and  he  was  always  weighed  down 
with  the  anxiety  and  excitement  of  protecting  his 
properties. 

"Mr.  Gould  was  the  most  generous  ot  men,  and 
he  made  a  great  many  other  men  rich  by  his  own 
generosity.  I  could  give  you  hundreds  of  instances 
wj;iere  in  return  for  some  slight  service  to  him  he  has 
started  men  in  the  way  of  making  fortunes.  There 
is  one  which  just  comes  to  mind  while  I  am  talking 
which  is  a  good  illustration.  Once  there  was  a  man 
out  West  who  did  some  little  work  for  Mr.  Gould  in 
a  railroad  matterthere.  The  man  was  of  the  ordinary 
type  of  a  Westerner  on  the  frontier.  Mr.  Gould 
said  to  me:  T  ought  to  do  something  for  him;  what 
would  you  suggest?'  I  replied,  'Buy  him  a  thousand 
shares  of  stock  for  a  rise.'  He  said,  'All  right,'  and 
ordered  the  purchase  of  i,ooo  shares  of  Denver  and 
Rio  Grande.    The  stock  was  then  about  29.  We 


PERSONAL  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  JAY  GOULD.  221 

carried  it  along  until  it  reached  a  very  high  point 
and  looked  like  going  off,  and  then  we  sold  it.  The 
profit  was  $6s,ooo  and  I  paid  that  money,  all  of  it, 
sixty-five  bills  of  ^1,000  each,  to  that  man  myself. 
Mr.  Gould  had  ordered  that  transaction  for  that  par- 
ticular purpose.  He  took  none  of  the  profit  himself, 
but  directed  that  the  man  should  have  it  all. 

"  There  were  many  instances,"  continued  Mr. 
Morosini,  **of  just  that  sort,  and  many  in  which 
he  greatly  helped  men  there  in  Wall  street  from 
going  down — men  whom  he  was  under  no  obligation 
to  help,  but  he  assisted  them  under  an  impulse  of 
generosity." 

In  regard  to  Mr.  Gould's  business  methods,  Mr. 
Morosini  said:  "Of  course,  he  was  very  reserved. 
He  never  let  the  left  hand  know  what  the  right  hand 
did.  His  motto  was  never  to  say  'cat'  until  you  had 
him  in  the  bag.  For  instance,  he  asked  me  one  day 
to  call  in  about  $8,000,000 — which  we  had  loaned 
out.  I  followed  his  instructions;  the  money  was 
collected;  he  said  nothing  to  anybody  about  why  he 
had  called  it  in.  I  kept  the  money  for  nearly  a 
month,  when  one  day  he  told  me  that  I  might  loan  it 
out  again,  as  he  had  no  more  use  for  it;  that  he 
had  intended  it  for  use  in  buying  the  Reading  road, 
but  the  deal  had  fallen  through  and  therefore  it 
might  as  well  be  drawing  interest.  That  was  the 
first  I  knew  of  what  he  had  in  contemplation  when 
he  called  the  money  in.  Then  again,  when  he 
bought  the  Missouri  Pacific,  his  negotiations  with 
Commodore   Garrison  were  carried  on  for  three 


222     PERSONAL  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  JAY  GOULD. 


months,  and  it  was  only  when  he  asked  me  to  draw 
checks  and  told  me  to  whom  they  should  be  drawn 
that  the  whole  thing  came  out." 

Continuing,  Mr.  Morosini  said:  "Mr,  Gould  could 
enjoy  immensely  anything  funny  or  ludicrous.  We 
used  to  have  a  small  window  in  the  office  through 
which  I  would  talk  to  some  of  the  unimportant 
callers,  and  through  which  Mr.  Gould  would  also 
talk  to  people  whom  it  was  not  necessary  to  bring 
into  the  inner  room.  One  day  a  man  came  to  the 
window  and  said,  *I  want  to  see  Mr.  Gould.'  I  told 
him  he  could  not  see  Mr.  Gould  unless  he  told  me 
what  he  wanted.  He  replied,  *I  have  an  invention 
here,  and  there's  millions  to  be  made  out  of  it.'  Mr. 
Gould  was  in  the  next  room,  and  he  said,  'Morosini, 
what  is  it  the  man  wants?'  and  I  told  him,  whereupon 
he  got  up  and  came  to.  the  window  to  talk  to  the 
man. 

"When  Mr.  Gould  appeared,  the  man  put  his  hand 
under  his  coat  as  if  to  pull  something  out.  I  saw  it 
glisten,  and  thinking  it  was  a  blunderbuss,  I  dodged 
down  under  the  counter,  and  Mr.  Gould  seeing  me 
go  down  dropped  down  also.  'Shoot  high,  you  son 
of  a  gun,'  I  yelled  out.  Then  the  man  laughed  and 
said  there  was  nothing  to  fear,  and  began  to  explain 
the  nature  of  his  invention.  We  got  up  and  looked 
at  it,  and  what  do  you  think  it  was?  He  had  a  sort 
of  a  brass  cylinder,  and  he  said  it  was  a  patent  port- 
able churn.  It  was  to  be  filled  with  cream  in  the 
morning  when  a  man  was  starting  away  from  home, 
and  slung  by  a  strap  over  his  shoulder  under  his  coat. 


PERSONAL  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  JAY  GOULD.  223 


The  motion  of  the  body  while  walking  would  keep 
the  cream  stirring,  and  then  besides  there  was  a  sort 
of  piston  with  a  handle  on  the  top.  Every  now  and 
then  you  were  to  give  that  a  jerk,  so  that  by  the  time 
the  man  reached  home  at  night  he  could  turn  out 
on  a  plate  for  his  wife  a  pound  or  two  of  fresh  butter. 

"I  said  to  the  man  when  he  had  explained  what 
the  thing  was,  'I  will  give  you  thirty  days  in  the 
penitentiary,'  and  you  ought  to  see  him  get  out.  It 
would  have  done  you  good  to  see  Mr.  Gould  laugh 
over  our  dropping  down  behind  that  counter  at  the 
sight  of  that  portable  churn." 

Mr.  Morosini  illustrated  Mr.  Gould's  peculiar  tac- 
tics in  operations  in  some  particular  stock  in  the 
Exchange  with  another  anecdote.    Said  he: 

*'At  one  time  Mr.  Gould  was  short  on  Pacific  Mail, 
and  he  bought  and  sold,  bought  and  sold,  bought 
and  sold  until  the  commissions  paid  brokers  amount- 
ed to  about  $36,000.  Then  the  account  was  finally 
made  up  and  showed  to  the  credit  of  Mr.  Gould  on 
the  entire  transaction  the  sum  of  fourteen  cents.  A 
rumor  was  in  circulation  that  Mr.  Gould  had  made 
a  great  deal  of  money  in  the  stock.  One  afternoon, 
just  about  that  time,  I  was  at  Mr.  Gould's  house 
when  William  H.  Vanderbilt  called  to  see  him  about 
some  matter  of  business.  He  congratulated  Mr. 
Gould  on  having  made  so  much  money  on  the  stock. 
Mr.  Gould  turned  to  me  and  said,  'Morosini,  how 
much  have  we  made  on  that  deal  in  Pacific  Mail?' 

'T  answered,  '$140,000.' 

.'•.'What,'  he  exclaimed,  and  looked  at  me  in  a 


224     PERSONAL  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  JAY  GOULD. 


queer  way.  After  Mr.  Vanderbilt  had  gone  Mr. 
Gould  said,  'When  I  asked  you  what  we  had  made 
on  that  Pacific  Mail  transaction  why  did  you  say  we 
had  made  $140,000?'  I  answered, 'Did  we  want  to 
disgrace  ourselves  by  saying  fourteen  cents?  Why 
not  let  them  know  that  we  can  make  money  as  well 
as  they  can?'  Mr.  Gould  was  very  m.uch  amused." 

Those  men  who  of  late  have  been  most  intimate- 
ly associated  in  business  with  Mr.  Gould,  and  those 
directly  connected  with  the  business  enterprises  of 
which  he  was  the  commanding  power,  invariably 
speak  of  him  in  the  highest  terms.  Th-e  directors  of 
the  Manhattan  Elevated  Railway,  the  Western 
Union  Telegraph  Company,  the  Missouri  Pacific 
System,  and  other  great  corporations  in  which  Mr. 
Gould's  holdings  of  stock  were  the  controlling  inter- 
ests, have  been  lavish  in  the  compliments  and  ad- 
miration which  they  express. 

Newspapers  throughout  the  country,  in  their 
editorials,  seem  to  have  made  every  effort  to  be 
kind,  even  while  expressing,  most  of  them,  detesta- 
tion for  Mr.  Gould's  methods.  In  the  public  press, 
however,  he  has  had  few  compliments  except  for 
his  shrewdness  and  his  family  life,  while  criticisms 
have  been  very  severe  on  all  of  the  prominent 
features  of  his  career. 

A  great  number  of  clergymen,  too,  have  taken 
occasion  to  preach  sermons  on  the  death  of  Mr. 
Gould,  some  of  them  very  bitter  in  their  denuncia- 
tion of  him.  A  few  have  been  charitable  enough  to 
object  entirely  to  the  fact  that  he  made  little  appli- 


PERSONAL  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  JAY  GOULD.     22 5 

cation  of  his  wealth  toward  benevolences,  and  have 
said  little  about  his  methods  of  acquiring  it. 

It  is  true,  however,  that  the  weight  of  the  con- 
census of  opinion  has  been  that  Jay  Gould's  life  was 
that  of  a  wrecker  of  fortunes  and  of  honor,  that  the 
good  that  he  is  done  falls  far  short  of  balancing  the 
account,  and  that  his  loss  will  be  felt  less  by  the 
world  at  large  than  would  that  of  any  other  man  of 
equal  prominence. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 


THE  FAMILY  OF  GOULD. 


AY  GOULD  had  no  social  ambition  whatever. 


vj  He  was  the  most  domestic  of  men,  and  his  affec- 
tion and  attention  to  his  own  immediate  family  was 
so  deep  as  to  apparently  leave  no  place  for  outside 
social  influences. 

Mr.  Gould  was  greatly  stricken  by  the  death  of 
his  wife,  which  occurred  January  13,  1889,  after  a  long 
and  painful  illness.  When  she  died  there  were 
present  besides  her  husband  and  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
George  Gould,  her  sons,  Howard  and  Edwin;  her 
daughters,  Helen  and  Anna,  and  her  sisters,  Mrs. 
Harris,  Mrs.  Noyes  and  Mrs.  Dickinson.  Mrs.  Gould 
was  practically  unknown  in  society,  for  the  reason 
that  she  seldom  cared  to  go  into  the  fashionable 
world.  Her  home  was  world  enough  for  her,  and 
she  made  it  a  happy  one.  She  was  the  idol  of  her 
children.  Many  stories  are  told  of  the  private 
charities  of  this  modest  woman. 

It  was  in  the  winter  of  1862  that  Jay  Gould  mar- 
ried Miss  Helen  D.  Miller,  the  daughter  of  Daniel  G. 


236 


THE  FAMILY  OF  GOULD. 


227 


Miller,  of  the  produce  and  grocery  firm  of  Lee,  Dater 
&  Miller.  Miss  Miller  was  then  twenty-three  years  old 
and  lived  with  her  parents  at  33  East  Seventeenth 
street,  now  the  site  of  the  Century  building.  The  house 
was  one  of  those  old-time  mansions,  few  of  which  still 
exist  in  New  York.  In  this  house  they  lived  for  several 
years  and  here,  on  February  6,  1864,  the  first  child, 
George  Jay  Gould,  was  born.  Here  also,  Edwin,  the 
second,  was  born  two  years  later.  Helen  Gould,  the 
oldest  daughter,  was  born  in  1870.  Howard  was 
born  a  year  later.  Their  other  children  are  Anna, 
who  is  now  fifteen,  and  Frank,  who  is  still  a  young 
boy. 

George  Jay  Gould,  the  eldest  son,  instead  of  go- 
ing to  college  went  into  business  with  his  father,  and 
has  himself  amassed  a  considerable  fortune.  He 
lived  with  his  father  until  his  marriage  to  Miss  Edith 
Kingdon,  once  a  member  of  the  company  at  Daly's 
theater,  which  took  place  several  years  ago.  He 
has  three  children,  two  boys,  Kingdon  and  Jay,  and 
one  little  girl.  After  his  marriage  George  bought 
the  house,  No.  i  East  Forty-seventh  street,  ajoining 
the  rear  of  his  father's  home,  from  Amos  Lawrence 
Hopkins.  A  passageway  was  built  connecting  the 
house  with  the  Fifth  avenue  mansion.  George  Jay 
Gould  lived  there  until  about  a  month  agoi,  when  he 
moved  to  the  house  which  he  purchased  from  Jacob 
H.  Schiff,  at  Fifth  avenue  and  Sixty-seventh  street. 
Edwin  Gould  then  moved  into  the  Forty-seventh 
street  house.  He  is  twenty-six  years  old  and  a 
graduate  of  Columbia  college  in  the  class  of  '88. 

15 


228 


THE  FAMILY  OF  GOULD. 


Edwin  Gould,  the  second  son,  was  married  Octo- 
ber 27,  1892,  to  Miss  Sarah  Cantine  Shrady,  step- 
daughter of  Dr.  George  F.  Shrady,  of  No.  8  East 
Sixty-sixth  street.  The  ceremony  was  performed  by 
the  Rev.  Robert  Collyer,  at  the  house  of  the  bride's 
father.  The  presents  received  by  the  young  couple 
were  very  costly  and  numerous.  Mr.  Gould  sent 
besides  the  diamond  pendant  which  the  bride  wore 
at  the  ceremony,  200  pieces  of  silver  in  a  fine  oak 
chest.  After  a  short  wedding  trip  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Gould  took  up  their  residence  at  No.  i  East  Forty- 
seventh  street. 

Edwin,  though  not  so  widely  known  as  his 
brother,  has  an  active  interest  in  many  of  his  father's 
enterprises.  He  is  a  director  of  the  Western  Union 
Telegraph  Company  and  of  the  Manhattan  Elevated 
railroad.  He  is  very  fond  of  athletic  sports,  and 
belongs  to  the  New  York  Athletic  Club.  He  has 
been  a  member  of  Troop  A,  but  resigned  when  he 
was  appointed  Inspector  of  Rifle  Practice. 

Miss  Helen  Miller  Gould  is  about  twenty-three 
years  old.  She  is  an  active  church-worker  and  a 
member  of  Dr.  Paxton's  church.  To  her  interest 
in  missionary  work  has  often  been  attributed  the 
minister's  meeting  at  Mr.  Gould's  house  and  the 
millionaire's  gift  of  ;Sio,000  for  missions.  Howard 
Gould  is  twenty-one  years  old,  Anna  is  a  school- 
girl, and  the  youngest,  Frank,  is  thirteen  years  old. 

About  a  year  ago  cards  were  sent  out  by  Mr.  Jay 
Gould,  which  read  simply: 


THE  FAMILY  OF  GOULD. 


229 


Mr.  Jay  Gould 
and 
Miss  Gould 
At  Home 
Saturday,  Dec.  26,  from  3  until  7. 


As  many  as  3,000  of  these  were  sent  out,  and 
every  person  in  the  social  set  was  asked.  This  was 
nothing  very  unusual,  as  general  invitations  are  fre- 
quently extended  by  people  of  personal  prominence 
in  this  way.  During  the  first  couple  of  hours  of  the 
"  at  home  "  there  were  but  few  callers  at  the  Gould 
house,  but  later  they  came  in  a  steady  stream. 

The  mothers  of  marriageable  youths  were  very 
kindly  disposed  toward  Miss  Gould.  Whether  she 
was  to  achieve  a  social  success  has  never  yet  been 
determined,  for  almost  immediately  after  the  coming 
out  reception  she  left  town  with  her  father,  who 
went  away  for  his  health.  Social  leaders  say  that 
with  his  great  wealth  Mr.  Gould  might  easily  have 
arranged  for  his  daughter's  marriage  to  a  man  of 
great  social  rank.  But  Mr.  Gould  didn't  care  to  en- 
courage the  quest  for  his  daughter's  hand  on  the 
part  of  men  of  great  social  rank.  This  was  evi- 
denced by  the  hearty  consent  he  gave  to  the  recent 
marriage  of  his  son  Edwin  to  Miss  Shrady,  the 
adopted  daughter  of  Dr.  Shrady. 

When  George  J.  Gould  married  Edith  Kingdon, 
the  actress,  it  was  said  there  was  opposition  to  it  on 
the  part  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Gould,  but  if  such  was  the 
case  it  never  developed  into  anything  definite.  In 


230 


THE  FAMILY  OF  GOULD. 


fact  the  Goulds  made  much  of  their  daughter-in- 
law  when  they  came  to  know  her.  When  Jay  Gould 
became  a  grandfather  he  manifested  the  greatest 
interest  in  the  children  of  his  son.  There  are  three 
of  them  at  the  present  time. 

Edwin  Gould,  the  second  son,  takes  after  his 
father  more  than  the  other  children  in  the  matter  of 
characteristics.  He  took  a  course  at  Columbia  and 
rowed  in  the  freshmen  crew.  As  to  how  the  elder 
Gould  regarded  the  two  boys,  George  and  Edwin, 
an  old  financier,  who  knew  Gould  intimately,  said: 

"Either  Jay  Gould  loves  his  sons  George  and 
Edwin  to  the  point  of  indiscretion,  or  he  has  weighed 
them  up  in  his  keen  way  and  thinks  there's  a  lot  of 
sand  in  them." 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Gould  were  a  couple  happily  mar- 
ried in  the  fullest  sense  of  the  term.  Mr.  Gould 
was  exceedingly  domestic  in  his  tastes.  He  never 
cared  much  about  going  into  society.  His  wife 
died  some  years  ago. 

Mrs.  Gould  had  been  fond  of  society,  but  gradu- 
ally gave  it  up. 

The  pleasures  of  Jay  Gould's  life  were  simple  and 
few.  With  vast  wealth  at  his  command,  he  seldom 
sought  recreation  away  from  his  immediate  home. 
To  a  certain  extent  money-getting  seemed  to  be  a 
pleasure  to  him.  In  the  many  deals  engineered  by 
his  master  hand  he  felt  the  thrill  of  a  nervy  gambler 
who  stakes  his  money  on  the  turn  of  a  card.  It  was 
not  making  money  that  worried  him.  It  was  keep- 
ing what  he  made  and  holding  his  own  in  the  thou- 


THE  FAMILY  OF  GOULD. 


231 


sand  and  one  schemes  concocted  to  get  the  better  of 
him. 

His  life  was  a  continual  game  of  chance,  and  in  this 
game  for  many  years  he  found  his  chief  enjoyment 
in  existence.  It  is  not  recorded  that  in  the  earlier 
years  of  his  career  Mr.  Gould  ever  sought  any  physi- 
cal relaxation  in  the  way  of  sport  or  pastime.  His 
whole  mind,  heart  and  soul  lay  between  Wall  street 
and  his  uptown  home.  Finally,  however,  money- 
making  became  an  old  story.  Time  and  again  he 
had  milked  Wall  street  dry,  and  his  fortune  had 
rolled  up  into  the  tens  of  millions.  Then,  observing 
an  occasional  smile  on  the  faces  of  other  millionaires, 
and  hearing  the  laughter  of  light  hearts  all  about 
him,  he  began  to  wonder  if  there  were  not  other 
pleasures  in  the  world  outside  of  cent  per  cent,  and 
the  dull,  eternal  rows  of  figures  that  stood  for  stocks 
and  bonds. 

So  one  day  he  turned  his  back  on  the  dingy 
office  that  represented  his  paradise  and  took  a  New 
York  Central  train  for  Irvington.  Here  he  met  Mr. 
Merritt,  and  was  driven  to  the  residence  of  the  lat- 
ter, a  mile  or  so  north  of  the  old  river  town  and 
close  to  the  shore.  Mr.  Gould  was  very  quiet  and 
very  reserved,  but  his  keen  eye  took  in  all  the  pos- 
sibilities of  the  place  at  a  glance.  When  he  returned 
to  New  York  on  the  evening  train  he  had  closed  a 
bargain  with  Mr.  Merritt,  by  which  the  estate 
became  his  for  a  consideration  of  a  quarter  of  a  mill- 
ion of  dollars. 

A  small  army  of  builders  and  decorators  and 


232 


THE  FAMILY  OF  GOULD. 


glaziers  was  employed,  and  out  of  the  general  chaos 
of  bush  and  bramble  arose  the  minarets  of  a  modern 
palace,  with  wide,  well-ordered  grounds  and  every 
comfort  one  could  wish  for.  Mr.  Gould  seemed  to 
take  great  pleasure  in  planning  the  arrangements 
for  his  future  country  residence.  For  awhile  all  but 
the  general  detail  of  his  business  was  put  in  the 
background.  Every  few  days  he  would  journey  up 
to  Irvington  to  see  how  matters  were  progressing. 
It  may  be  safely  said  that  these  were  the  first  leisure 
days  of  Mr.  Gould's  life.  His  eyes  grew  brighter, 
his  step  more  buoyant,  and  he  began  to  look  upon 
these  little  excursions  as  a  pleasant  diversion. 

Sometimes  he  would  take  his  younger  children 
with  him,  and  their  unaffected  happiness  was 
another  source  of  relaxation  for  the  care-worn  mill- 
ionaire. Previous  to  this  time  money-making  had 
been  Mr.  Gould's  exclusive  thought.  Thereafter  it 
became  to  a  certain  degree  intermittent. 

Mr.  Gould's  house  on  the  Hudson,  above  Irving- 
ton,  was  called  Lyndhurst.  It  is  a  stone  structure 
of  Elizabethan  architecture,  situated  on  a  high  green 
bluff  overlooking  the  river  and  surrounded  with  a 
well-kept  park.  The  entrance  to  the  park  is  about 
a  mile  from  Irvington,  and  is  marked  by  two  tall 
granite  posts.  A  stone  porter's  lodge  is  by  the  gate. 
Passing  into  the  grounds  one  sees  on  every  side  the 
marks  of  the  gardener's  care  and  the  skill  of  the 
landscape  gardener.  There  are  not  too  many  trees, 
only  enough,  and  they  are  so  grouped  that  while 
they  make  the  house  at  the  end  of  the  driveway 


THE  FAMILY  OF  GOULD. 


seem  retired,  they  yet  afford  vistas  through  which 
glimpses  can  be  caught  of  the  stone  towers  and 
gables  of  the  mansion. 

Beyond  the  limits  of  the  park  lie  fruitful  and 
well-cultivated  farmlands  and  orchards  belonging  to 
the  Gould  estate.  One  opening  among  the  trees 
shows  a  gray  tower  and  slender  minarets.  These 
mark  the  dog  kennels.  The  driveway  is  broad  and 
smooth,  and  winds  over  the  undulating  surface  of 
the  park  toward  the  house.  Some  of  the  trees 
through  which  it  runs  are  old  oaks  which  have  not 
been  interfered  with  in  the  general  plan  of  the 
grounds,  but  have  been  brought  into  stranger  effect 
by  the  arrangement  of  the  newer  trees  and  the 
shrubbery.  The  road  descends  a  little  before  it 
reaches  the  house  and  passes  through  a  grove  of 
evergreens.  As  one  comes  out  of  the  dark  grove, 
the  beautiful  house  bursts  at  once  on  the  sight  of 
the  visitor.  Trim  lawns  surround  it  and  beyond  it 
the  view  is  closed  by  the  broad  Hudson  and  the 
palisades  beyond. 

The  central  tower  of  the  house  rises  high,  bearing 
turrets  at  each  of  its  four  corners.  The  house  is 
built  of  greystone,  which  is  shot  with  bluish  tints. 
It  covers  a  large  area  and  its  many  parts  are 
grouped  together  so  as  to  give  an  appearance  which 
is  at  once  beautiful  and  imposing.  There  are  mul- 
titudes of  graceful  angles,  mullioned  windows,  tur- 
rets and  spires,  all  in  harmony,  and  forming  a  pict- 
ure delightful  to  look  upon.  Here  and  there  are 
verandas  with  great  windows  opening  upon  them, 


234 


THE  FAMILY  OF  GOULD. 


and  now  and  then  a  stone  balcony  high.  up.  The 
great  double  doors  of  the  main  entrance  are  of  stone 
even  to  the  sashes  of  the  diamond-paned  windows  at 
their  top. 

Inside  the  house  there  is  a  great  hall  in  the  cen- 
ter. On  the  right  from  the  main  entrance  is  the 
dining-room  and  on  the  left  a  large  drawing-room. 
Everywhere  are  works  of  art,  statuary  and  paintings. 
The  house  has  a  multitude  of  rooms  in  it  and  is  built 
on  a  generous  plan  throughout.  It  is  an  ideal  coun- 
try home.  Every  window  commands  a  beautiful 
view,  but  those  on  the  west  front  have  the  finest. 
The  Hudson  can  be  seen  for  miles  to  the  south  and 
north.  The  palisades  are  seen  in  a  magnificent 
sweep  across  the  river,  and  the  town  of  Nyack  looks 
like  a  toy  city  on  the  further  shore  of  the  river.  To 
the  north  are  the  mountains  of  the  Highlands.  The 
lawn  at  the  west  of  the  house  slopes  down  to  the 
edge  of  the  bluff.  Then  there  is  a  steep  descent  to 
the  railroad  track,  which  is  hidden  from  view  by 
thickly  planted  trees  and  shrubs  growing  on  the 
declivity.  A  path  leads  down  to  a  bridge  over  the 
track  and  a  short  distance  on  the  other  side  brings 
one  to  the  little  wharf  and  boathouse.  It  was  off 
this  wharf  that  the  Atalanta  used  to  lie  when  Mr. 
Gould  was  at  Lyndhurst. 

The  library  in  the  house  contains  a  splendid  col- 
lection of  books,  which  Mr.  Gould  bought  from  a 
man  who  had  spent  many  years  and  much  money  in 
collecting  them  in  all  the  markets  of  the  world. 

He  erected  a  short  distance  away  one  of  the 


THE  FAMILY  OF  GOULD. 


largest  and  most  handsomely  equipped  conserva- 
tories in  the  country.  It  covers  nearly  four  acres, 
and  from  a  distance  looks  like  the  fabled  palace  of 
Kubla  Khan.  Here  there  was  another  source  of 
pleasure  for  the  weary  financier.  He  employed  Fer- 
dinand Mangold,  Mr.  Merritt's  former  gardener,  to 
take  charge  of  the  conservatory,  and  gave  him  carte 
blanche  to  procure  the  rarest  flowers  and  exotics 
from  all  over  the  world.  Mangold  performed  his 
work  well.  When  the  leaves  grew  yellow  around 
Lyndhurst  the  autumn  following  the  conservatory 
contained  the  finest  palm  garden  on  the  Western 
hemisphere. 

There  are  over  250  varieties,  from  the  size  of  a 
maidenhair  fern  to  great  shadowy  trees,  thirty  feet 
high  and  with  leaves  as  wide  as  the  jib  of  a  pilot 
boat.  They  range  in  value  from  $20  to  $500;  but 
what  is  money  to  a  millionaire  in  pursuit  of  the  but- 
terfly of  pleasure.  These  palms  were  brought  from 
Africa,  Central  and  South  America,  Samoa,  the  Sand- 
wich Islands,  the  heart  of  India  and  from  beyond 
Trebizonde,  for  the  simple  purpose  of  wooing  Mr. 
Gould's  pale  face  into  a  smile.  There  were  Viridi- 
folium,  Hyophorbe  Americanlis  and  Plectocomia  Assa- 
mica  palms  without  number,  and  Mr.  Gould  knew 
every  one  of  them  by  name. 

In  another  apartment  was  a  wilderness  of  roses, 
pink  and  white,  and  goldand  Guelder,  Burgundyand 
Austrian  in  an  endless  tangle  of  color  and  a  delirious, 
odorous  atmosphere  that  would  have  enraptured  the 
soul  of  a  lotus  eater.    No  wonder  that  Mr.  Gould 


236 


THE  FAMILY  OF  GOULD. 


abandoned  care  when  he  entered  the  portals  of  his 
conservatory.  He  did  not  have  many  warm  personal 
friends,  yet  surely  a  man  can  not  be  altogether  bad 
who  is  a  friend  of  the  roses.  There  must  be  some 
good  in  the  heart  of  a  man  whose  eyes  grow  tender 
as  he  bends  over  a  lily. 

The  conservatory  became  a  hobby  with  Mr. 
Gould.  Every  morning  after  breakfast  he  would  pay 
a  visit  to  the  big  glass  house  to  wander  for  an  hour 
or  so  among  the  plants  and  flowers.  While  there  he 
would  seem  to  forget  everything  but  the  green,  trop- 
ical tangle  about  him.  In  the  evening,  on  his  return 
from  the  city,  he  would  again  stroll  through  the 
shadowy  aisles  of  palm  and  vine,  sometimes  alone 
and  at  others  accompanied  by  the  members  of  his 
family. 

Orchids  were  Mr.  Gould's  especial  hobby.  In 
this  department  of  his  conservatory  he  had  nearly 
8,000  orchid  plants  and  over  150  varieties.  For 
some  of  these  delicate,  air-fed  and  angel-painted 
blossoms  Mr.  Gould  had  paid  $300 — half  the  amount 
of  a  poor  man's  wages  for  a  year  of  toil.  In  another 
apartment  were  nearly  2,000  azaleas,  little  bits  of  sun- 
set sky  cut  into  the  shape  of  bells.  In  the  fernery 
were  600  varieties  of  ferns,  giving  the  entire  place 
the  appearance  of  a  soft  green  cloud  hemmed  in 
glass  walls.  Just  the  place  for  Titania  and  her  fair- 
ies. 

It  is  strange  that  this  appreciation  of  pure  and 
poetical  things  should  exist  in  the  soul  of  a  man  of 
such  financial  grimness.    But  it  was  doubtless  in 


THE  FAMILY  OF  GOULD. 


Mr.  Gould's  nature  before  his  life  took  on  its  ac- 
quired thirst  for  gold.  When  that  thirst  was  in  a 
measure  satiated  he  turned  again  to  his  fundamental 
instincts  and  his  great  conservatory  was  the  result. 

Yet  in  the  summer  months  Mr.  Gould  found 
much  pleasure  in  his  open-air  garden.  It  was  a  big 
affair,  guiltless  of  weeds,  yet  it  is  doubtful  if  Mr. 
Gould  ever  weeded  his  own  potato  patch  or  hoed 
his  own  turnips.  There  were  beds  for  cantaloupes 
and  watermelon,  cucumbers,  peas,  beans,  parsley, 
spinach,  carrots,  beets,  lettuce  and  cauliflower,  and 
Mr.  Gould  knew  just  where  to  find  everything. 
For  a  short  time  every  day  he  would  walk  through 
the  garden,  and  doubtless  dream  of  his  old  barefoot, 
boyhood  days  when  he  looked  after  his  mother's 
garden  in  Delaware  county.  He  was  a  sort  of  inter- 
mittent farmer  and  seemed  to  find  a  transitory 
pleasure  in  everything  that  pertained  to  a  farm. 
There  was  nothing  in  common,  however,  between 
Mr.  Gould's  luxurious  style  of  farming  and  that  of 
the  everyday  horny-handed  knight  of  the  pitchfork 
and  plow. 

His  barnyards  and  meadows,  situated  some  dis- 
tance from  the  conservatory,  contained  innumerable 
blooded  stock.  There  were  50  cows,  25  horses,  a 
span  of  oxen,  3  bulls,  over  a  thousand  chickens,  200 
ducks  and  500  pigeons,  besides  half  a  dozen  deer. 
This  gave  the  entire  estate  a  farmlike  aspect  that 
was  very  pleasing  to  Mr.  Gould.  Over  two  hundred 
and  fifty  tons  of  hay  were  harvested  in  the  fields  of 
Lyndhurst  every  year.   Mr.  Gould  took  great  pleas- 


238 


THE  FAMILY  OF  GOULD. 


ure  in  going  out  to  the  fields  on  summer  afternoons 
to  lie  under  the  trees  and  watch  the  haying.  The 
far-off  drone  of  the  flying  sickle  came  to  his  brain 
as  a  soporific  balm,  and  the  sight  of  the  sun-worn 
toilers  heaving  away  at  the  great,  slow  wagons  and 
the  distant  songs  of  the  reapers  lulled  him  to  slum- 
ber. 

In  Mr.  Gould's  stables  there  were  fifteen  or 
twenty  carriages  and  conveyances  of  one  kind  or 
another,  many  of  which  were  not  used  once  a  year. 
To  get  rid  of  malaria,  Mr.  Gould  filled  in  over  one 
hundred  and  twenty  acres  of  swamp  land.  Mr. 
Merritt  spent  over  $1,250,000  in  improving  the  place 
and  Mr.  Gould  spent  about  $1,500,000  in  the  same 
endeavor. 

Mr.  Gould  was  a  great  lover  of  art,  and  was  con- 
tinually purchasing  statuary  and  paintings.  Beyond 
the  carriage  archway  leading  to  the  outer  hall  of  the 
Gould  castle  is  a  bust  of  Lafayette;  on  the  other 
side  is  one  of  Washington.  On  the  right  of  the 
inner  hall  is  a  bronze  Ethiopian  woman  and  a  paint- 
ing by  Perrault.  There  are  many  marble  busts  and 
statues  on  onyx  pedestals  scattered  throughout  the 
house,  most  of  which  were  purchased  by  Mr.  Gould. 
In  the  picture  gallery  are  innumerable  rare  paint- 
ings. Among  them  are  "A  Forest  Scene,"  by  Rous- 
seau; "A  River  Scene,"  by  Ziem;  "Evening  Antique 
Dance,"  by  Corot;  "A  Girl,"  by  Fleury;  "A  Storm 
on  the  Farm,"  by  Jacque;  "Priest  and  Cavalier,"  by 
Meissonier,  and  "Le  Loup  dans  la  berguerie,"  by 
Loustaunau. 


THE  FAMILY  OF  GOULD. 


Then  there  are  Vernets,  Simonettis,  Kaemmerers, 
Constants,  Bouguereaus  and  Troyons  innumerable, 
all  of  which  were  purchased,  either  directly  or  indi- 
rectly, by  Mr.  Gould.  This  was  in  the  earlier  stages 
of  his  home-making  and  before  he  had  the  fever  of 
the  farm  and  conservatory  upon  him. 

Mr.  Gould  was  not  a  great  admirer  of  the  drama, 
but  he  was  rather  fond  of  opera,  and  this  formed 
almost  his  only  public  diversion  during  the  winter 
months.  He  was  seen  very  often  at  the  Metropoli- 
tan during  the  opera  season  with  his  daughter  and 
daughter-in-law. 

In  1883  Mr.  Gould  built  the  big  steam  yacht  Ata- 
lanta,  and  for  several  years  he  was  well  known  in 
yachting  circles.  He  was  elected  a  member  of  the 
Eastern  and  Larchmont  yacht  clubs,  and  applied 
for  membership  in  the  New  York  Yacht  Club.  The 
opposition  to  his  name  which  was  developed  in  the 
club  was  so  strong,  however,  that  his  friends  with- 
drew his  name.  This  furnished  a  sensation  at  the 
time.  George  J.  Gould,  who  had  for  some  time 
taken  an  active  interest  in  yachting,  and  was  a 
member  of  the  club,  at  once  resigned.  Mr.  Gould 
at  one  time  had  an  idea  of  making  a  cruise  around 
the  world  in  the  Atalanta,  but  abandoned  it. 

Soon  after  the  launching  of  the  Atalanta  Mr. 
Gould  and  others  formed  the  American  Steam  Yacht 
Club.  The  Atalanta  developed  remarkable  speed 
and  is  to-day  the  fastest  large  steam  yacht  afloat. 
Mr.  Gould  had  her  built  because  he  felt  his  health  to 
be  failing,  and  thought  yachting  would  be  beneficial 


240 


THE  FAMILY  OF  GOULD. 


to  him.  Until  within  the  last  two  years  he  spent 
much  time  on  board  of  her.  She  was  used  princi- 
pally as  a  means  of  transportation  between  Lynd- 
hurst,  his  home  on  the  Hudson,  and  the  city,  though 
he  made  several  extended  cruises  in  her.  It  was  not 
often  that  Mr.  Gould  would  allow  the  Atalanta  to  be 
raced,  but  on  the  occasions  when  he  did  permit  this 
she  made  records. 

Mr.  Gould  presented  to  the  Larchmont  club  a 
cup,  called  the  Gould  Cup,  which  is  raced  for  every 
year.  He  also  contributed  largely  to  the  Inter- 
national Challenge  Cup,  offered  by  the  American 
Yacht  Club  for  competition  by  steam  yachts  of  dif- 
ferent nations.  He  was  always  anxious  to  see  a 
challenge  for  this  cup,  but  so  far  no  nation  has  chal- 
lenged, owing  to  the  great  superiority  in  point  of 
speed  of  the  American  steam  yachts. 

Mr.  Gould  seldom  entertained  people  on  board 
the  Atalanta,  but  when  he  did  entertain,  his  hospi- 
tality was  perfect.  He  had  the  happy  faculty  of 
making  his  guests  feel  that  the  yacht  was  theirs  and 
he  himself  was  a  guest  on  board.  There  was  an 
excellently  well-selected  library  on  the  yacht,  and 
the  craft  was  fitted  throughout  with  quiet  and  sub- 
stantial elegance. 

The  Atalanta  is  243  feet  long,  26>^  feet  beam  and 
1 5  Yz  feet  deep.  She  is  built  of  iron  and  was  designed 
and  constructed  by  W.  Cramp  &  Son,  of  Philadel- 
phia. In  June  of  1886  she  ran  over  the  85-knot  course 
of  the  American  Yacht  Club,  from  Milton  Point  to 
New  London,  in  4  hours,  34  minutes  and  57  seconds. 


THE  FAMILY  OF  GOULD. 


241 


The  house  at  No.  1579  Fifth  avenue,  where  Jay 
Gould  died,  had  been  his  city  home  for  several  years. 
Before  that  he  lived  across  the  avenue,  almost 
directly  opposite  his  present  house,  which  before  Mr. 
Gould  bought  it  was  the  home  of  George  Opdyke,  the 
banker,  who  enjoyed  the  distinction  of  being  one  of 
the  few  Republican  mayors  which  New  York  has  had. 
The  house  stands  at  the  northeast  corner  of  Fifth  ave- 
nue and  Forty-seventh  street.  It  is  a  square,  brown- 
stone  house,  about  double  the  width  of  the  aver- 
age house,  with  an  extension  in  the  rear.  It  is  three 
stories  in  height,  with  a  mansard  roof,  which  gives 
another  story.  The  main  entrance  is  in  the  middle 
of  the  Fifth  avenue  front,  under  a  portico  into  a 
deep  vestibule  with  handsomely  carved  oaken  doors 
and  mosaic  floor.  The  hall  is  fifty  feet  long.  On 
the  left  of  the  hall  is  a  small  reception  room  with 
one  window  facing  Fifth  avenue.  On  the  other  side 
of  the  hall  are  the  great  drawing-rooms.  The  library 
and  the  dining-room  are  in  the  rear.  Mr.  Gould  had 
a  fine  collection  of  standard  books.  The  whole 
house  was  entirely  redecorated  only  a  short  time 
ago,  and  is  everywhere  a  model  of  comfort,  elegance 
and  good  taste.  It  is  filled  with  most  exquisite 
tapestries  and  the  finest  paintings.  Mr.  Gould  had 
specimens  of  the  work  of  Diaz,  Rousseau,  Daubigny, 
Henner,  Vibert,  Rosa  Bonheur,  Voley,  Jacquet, 
Schreyer,  Bouguereau,  Dupre  and  Meyer  von  Bremen. 

Attached  to  the  house  is  a  conservatory,  which 
is  kept  constantly  filled  with  the  finest  plants  from 
the  hot-houses  in  the  country  house  at  Irvington. 


242 


THE  FAMILY  OF  GOULD. 


Mr.  Gould  lived  quietly  in  his  handsome  house, 
and  few  people  other  than  intimate  friends  fre- 
quented it.  He  was  devoted  to  his  family  and  spent 
nearly  all  of  his  time  not  occupied  with  his  financial 
operations  with  them.  They  in  turn  were  devoted 
to  him.  Mrs.  Gould  for  several  years  before  her 
death  had  been  in  delicate  health,  could  not  attend 
church,  and  never  took  part  in  social  pleasures.  Her 
trouble  was  a  nervous  one,  and  she  could  not  endure 
excitement.  Thus  the  house  was  never  given  over 
to  festivities  to  any  extent.  Sumptuous  as  it  was,  it 
did  not  compare  in  size  or  display  with  that  of  other 
men  whose  fortunes  rivaled  Mr.  Gould's,  or,  in  fact, 
with  the  homes  of  many  whose  wealth  was  not  a 
tenth  of  his.  All  looked  at  the  place  with  interest, 
however,  when  it  was  pointed  out  as  the  retreat  of 
the  remarkable  man  whose  public  life  was  so  dra- 
matic, and  whose  home  life  was  so  quiet  and  so 
peaceful. 

Mr.  Gould  attended  the  recent  horse  show  on 
three  afternoons,  but  these  are  the  only  occasions 
he  ever  publicly  exhibited  any  particular  liking  for 
horses.  His  city  stable  is  one  of  a  row  on  West 
Forty-fourth  street,  between  the  Berkeley  school 
building  and  Fifth  avenue.  It  is  a  two-story,  twenty- 
foot  front  brick  building  trimmed  with  granite.  It 
is  No.  14  West  Forty-fourth  street.  It  is  a  neatly 
arranged  stable  of  the  old-fashioned,  oak-trimmed 
pattern  common  in  the  neighborhood.  Mr.  Gould 
kept  only  three  pairs  of  horses  at  the  time  of  his 
death,  and  they  are  all  quartered  in  the  building. 


THE  FAMILY  OF  GOULD. 


243 


Four  of  the  horses  are  cobby  bays,  two  with  docked 
and  two  with  banged  tails.  The  other  two  are  long- 
tailed  black  roadsters,  and  the  most  valuable  of  the 
lot.  None  of  the  horses  would  bring  a  fancy  price 
if  put  up  at  auction,  but  they  are  all  of  the  good, 
plain  sort  that  will  stand  plenty  of  work. 

Simplicity  was  the  chief  characteristic  of  the 
carriages  used  by  Mr.  Gould.  He  always  bought 
the  best  and  paid  the  prices  asked  without  cavilling, 
but  the  first  outlay  was  all  the  carriages  ever  cost 
him.  He  v/as  careless  in  the  extreme  regarding  re- 
pairs or  fresh  trimmings,  seldom  having  any  work 
done  on  any  of  his  vehicles.  Mr.  Gould  always 
selected  his  carriages  personally,  and  always  bought 
from  the  same  firm.  He  was  easy  to  suit,  always 
telling  just  what  he  wanted  and  taking  the  first  car- 
riage that  met  his  ideas. 

James  Downs  is  the  Gould  coachman.  He  has 
served  the  family  for  over  ten  years.  The  carriages 
at  the  stable  ready  for  use  are  a  brougham,  landau, 
victoria  and  a  hunting  wagon.  The  last  is  gaudy  in 
yellow  and  black  and  is  the  newest  of  the  vehicles. 
The  others  are  plain  in  coloring  and  are  what  driv- 
ing people  call  old  style.  Jay  Gould's  livery  is  a 
dark  green,  and  was  worn  on  the  usual  occasions  by 
both  coachman  and  footman. 

Two  years  ago  Mrs.  George  Gould  was  in  the 
habit  of  giving  her  father-in-law  early  morning 
drives  in  Central  Park,  calling  for  him  daily  in  a 
neat  trap  of  her  own.  With  this  exception  he  sel- 
dom drove  for  pleasure  in  the  city.    At  Irvington 

16 


244 


THE  FAMILY  OF  GOULD. 


he  was  occasionally  seen  driving  on  the  roads  near 
his  residence.  Until  the  purchase  of  his  yacht  Mr. 
Gould  drove  to  and  from  the  railroad  station  daily, 
but  since  then  he  has  only  taken  drives  at  infre- 
quent intervals. 

None  of  the  Gould  family  is  especially  devoted 
to  riding  or  driving.  George  Gould  keeps  six  car- 
riage horses  and  a  saddle  horse  at  his  stable,  No. 
133  West  Fifty-fifth  street,  but  they  are  more  for 
Mrs.  Gould's  use  than  his  own.  His  coachman, 
William  Willis,  has  eight  carriages  and  light  traps 
to  care  for.  Edwin  Gould  is  a  capital  rider,  and 
until  his  promotion  to  a  captaincy  and  the  post  of 
Inspector  of  Rifle  Practice  in  the  Seventy-first 
Regiment,  was  an  active  member  of  Troop  A.  He 
always  rode  a  long-tailed  gray  thoroughbred,  for 
which  he  paid  a  high  price.  Edwin  Gould  was 
very  proficient  at  wrestling  on  horseback,  and  few 
of  the  cavalrymen  could  unseat  him.  The  Misses 
Gould  drive  daily  during  their  stay  at  Irvington, 
using  the  family  carriages  or  else  handling  the  reins 
in  the  hunting  wagon  or  in  a  mail  phaeton. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 


THE  GREAT  FORTUNE  AND  ITS  INHERITORS. 

FIVE  days  after  the  death  of  Jay  Gould,  the  con- 
tents of  his  will,  or  at  least  the  substance  of  it, 
were  made  public  in  the  press.  The  will  itself  re- 
mained under  lock  and  key  in  the  safe  of  ex-Judge 
John  F.  Dillon,  counsel  for  the  executors. 

"The  original  will,"  said  ex-Judge  Dillon,  in 
giving  out  the  summary,  *'is  dated  December  24, 
1885,  during  the  lifetime  of  Mr.  Gould's  wife.  It 
made  various  provisions  for  her  benefit  which  failed 
of  effect  by  reason  of  her  death  before  the  death  of 
her  husband.  After  and  in  consequence  of  her 
death,  Mr.  Gould,  on  Feburary  16,  1889,  executed 
the  first  codicil  to  his  will,  making  such  changes  as 
became  necessary.  A  second  and  a  third  codicil 
were  executed  on  November  21,  1892. 

"Taking  the  wills  and  codicils  together  the  sum- 
mary I  give  you  is  accurate  and  complete." 

The  specific  legacies  came  first.  The  three  sis- 
ters, who  with  their  brother  Abraham  got  $25,000 
and  an  annuity  of  $2,000,  were  Mrs.  Sarah  Northrup, 
Mrs.  Anna  G.  Hough  and  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Palen. 
Mrs.  Northrup  and  her  daughters  received  in  addi- 
tion the  three  lots  of  ground  in  Camden,  N.  J.,  on 
which  their  dwelling  is  erected.  The  annuities  were 
to  be  paid  in  equal  sums  quarterly. 


245     THE  GREAT  FORTUNE  AND  ITS  INHERITORS. 

To  his  daughter  Helen  M.  Gould  he  gave  in  fee- 
simple  absolute  the  house  in  which  he  lived,  No. 
579  Fifth  avenue,  and  all  of  the  furniture,  books, 
paintings,  statuary,  silver  plate  and  household 
contents  therein.  He  also  gave  to  his  daughter 
Helen,  until  his  youngest  child  shall  arrive  at  age, 
the  use  of  his  residence  at  Irvington,  commonly 
called  Lyndhurst,  free  of  taxes,  and  of  all  the  furni- 
ture, books,  paintings  and  household  contents  therein, 
and  also  the  sum  of  $6,000  per  month.  The  will 
stated  that  this  was  done  in  the  expectation  that  his 
minor  children,  Anna  and  Frank  J.,  as  well  as  his 
son  Howard,  would  during  the  period  provided  for 
make  their  home  with  his  daughter  Helen. 

The  $500,000  to  his  namesake  and  grandson,  Jay 
Gould,  son  of  George  J.  Gould,  was  to  be  held  in  trust 
by  George  J.  Gould,  with  authority  to  apply  the 
same  to  the  support  and  education  of  the  child,  and 
to  pay  one-quarter  of  the  same  to  him  at  the  age  of 
twenty-five,  one-quarter  at  the  age  of  thirty  and  the 
remaining  half  at  thirty-five,  with  power  to  pay  the 
same  at  earlier  periods  in  the  discretion  of  his  father. 

The  bequest  to  his  son  George  J.  Gould  was  in 
substantially  these  words: 

"My  beloved  son,  George  J.  Gould,  having  devel- 
oped a  remarkable  business  ability,  and  having  for 
twelve  years  devoted  himself  entirely  to  my  busi- 
ness, and  during  the  past  five  years  taken  entire 
charge  of  all  my  difficult  interests,  I  hereby  fix  the 
value  of  his  services  at  $5,000,000,  payable  as  follows: 
Five  hundred  thousand  dollars  in  cash,  less  the 


THE  GREAT  FORTUNE  AND  ITS  INHERITORS.  247 


amount  advanced  by  me  for  the  purchase  of  a  house 
for  him  on  Fifth  avenue,  New  York  City;  $500,000 
in  Missouri  Pacific  6  per  cent,  mortgage  bonds; 
$500,000  in  St.  Louis,  Iron  Mountain  and  Southern 
railway  company  consolidated  5  per  cent,  bonds; 
$500,000  in  Missouri  Pacific  railway  trust  5  per  cent, 
bonds;  10,000  shares  of  Manhattan  railway  stock; 
10,000  shares  of  Western  Union  stock,  and  10,000 
shares  of  Missouri  Pacific  stock — all  to  be  taken  and 
treated  as  worth  par." 

He  appointed  as  executors  and  trustees  of  his 
will  his  sons  George  J.  Gould,  Edwin  Gould  and 
Howard  Gould,  and  his  daughter  Helen  M.  Gould, 
with  a  provision  that  in  case  a  vacancy  should  occur 
by  death  or  otherwise  his  son,  Frank  J.  Gould  was  to 
be  an  executor  and  trustee  when  he  shall  have 
reached  the  age  of  twenty-one  years,  and  in  case  of 
another  vacancy  he  appointed  his  daughter  Anna 
Gould,  to  fill  such  vacancy  when  she  shall  have 
reached  the  age  of  twenty-one  years,  no  bonds  to  be 
required. 

George  J.  Gould  and  Helen  M.  Gould  were  ap- 
pointed guardians  of  Anna  Gould  and  Frank  J. 
Gould  during  their  minority. 

All  the  rest  of  his  estate  was  devised  and  be- 
queathed to  the  said  executors  and  trustees  in  trust; 
first,  to  divide  the  same  into  six  equal  parts  or  shares 
and  to  hold  and  invest  one  of  such  shares  for  each 
of  his  said  children,  George  J.  Gould,  Edwin  Gould, 
Howard  Gould,  Frank  J.  Gould,  Helen  M.  Gould 
and  Anna  Gould,  with  authority  to  collect  and  re- 


248      THE  GREAT  FORTUNE  AND  ITS  INHERITORS. 


ceive,  pay  and  apply  the  income  thereof  to  each 
child  for  life,  with  power  to  each  to  dispose  of  the 
same  by  will  in  favor  of  issue,  and  in  case  of  death 
without  issue  the  share  of  the  one  so  dying  to  go  to 
the  surviving  brothers  and  sisters  and  to  the  issue 
of  any  deceased  child,  share  and  share  alike,  per 
stirpes,  and  not  per  capita. 

He  directed  that  these  trusts  should  be  kept 
separate  and  distinct,  and  that  the  accounts  there- 
of should  be  kept  separately;  that  no  deduction 
should  be  made  by  reason  of  any  gifts  or  advance- 
ments heretofore  made  to  or  for  any  of  his  chil- 
dren. 

In  case  of  difference  of  opinion  among  the  ex- 
ecutors and  trustees  as  to  holding  and  retaining 
securities  or  investments  in  managing  the  estate,  he 
directed  that  so  long  as  there  shall  be  five  executors 
and  trustees  the  decision  of  four  should  be  conclu- 
sive, and  when  four  the  decision  of  three  should  be 
conclusive,  with  this  further  provision  in  the  codicil 
of  November  21,  1892: 

"The  better  to  protect  and  conserve  the  values 
of  my  properties,  it  is  my  desire,  and  I  so  direct  and 
provide,  that  the  shares  of  any  railway  or  other 
incorporated  companies  at  any  time  held  by  my 
executors  and  trustees  or  my  said  trustees,  shall 
always  be  voted  by  them  or  by  their  proxies  at  all 
corporate  meetings  as  a  unit;  and  in  case  my  said 
executors  and  trustees  or  my  said  trustees  do  not 
concur  as  to  how  such  stock  shall  be  voted,  then,  in 
view  of  the  fact  that  my  son  George  J.  Gould  has 


THE  GREAT  FORTUNE  AND  ITS  INHERITORS.  249 

for  years  had  the  management  of  my  said  properties, 
and  is  familiar  with  them  and  with  other  like  prop- 
erties, I  direct  and  provide  that  in  such  event  his 
judgment  shall  control,  and  he  is  hereby  authorized 
and  empowered  to  vote  the  said  shares  in  person  or 
by  proxy  in  such  manner  as  his  judgment  shall 
dictate." 

There  was  the  usual  provision  that  the  property 
of  his  daughters  was  for  their  sole  and  separate  use, 
free  from  any  estate  or  control  of  their  husbands, 
and  prohibiting  all  dispositions  or  changes  by  any 
of  the  legatees  by  way  of  anticipation  or  otherwise. 

There  was  a  provision  that  if  any  of  his  children 
should  marry  without  the  consent  of  a  majority 
of  the  executors  and  trustees,  then  the  share  allotted 
to  such  child  should  be  reduced  one-half  and  the 
other  half  of  such  share  should  be  transferred  to 
such  persons  as  under  the  laws  of  the  state  of  New 
York  would  take  the  same  if  the  testator  had  died 
intestate. 

Who  were  the  witnesses  to  the  Gould  will  was 
not  divulged  by  ex-Judge  Dillon;  nor  was  it  known 
who  drew  the  will.  Judge  Dillon  said  that  he 
didn't.  It  was  thought  probable  that  Gen.  Swayne, 
who  was  formerly  in  partnership  with  the  judge,  was 
the  man,  but  he  declined  to  say.  There  were  many 
who  believed  that  Gould  himself  drew  the  will.  A 
gentleman  who  knew  Mr.  Gould  very  well  said: 

"From  what  I  know  of  Mr.  Gould,  however,  I 
believe  he  drew  it  himself.  He  was  naturally  a  very 
secretive  man,  and  any  important  undertaking  he 


250      THE  GREAT  FORTUNE  AND  ITS  INHERITORS. 

kept  to  himself  as  much  as  possible.  He  was  an 
able  lawyer,  and  certainly  had  sufficient  knowledge 
to  have  made  the  will." 

In  spite  of  Mr.  Gould's  great  interests  his  execu- 
tors found  his  affairs  in  very  trim  shape.  Some- 
thing less  than  two  years  ago,  in  conversation  with 
Mr.  Connor  and  Mr.  Morosini,  Mr.  Gould  remarked: 

"If  I  should  die  to-night  my  affairs  are  in  such 
shape  that  my  executors  could  straighten  everything 
out  in  less  than  forty-eight  hours  after  my  death." 

Many  different  estimates  have  been  made  of  the 
amount  of  the  fortune  of  Jay  Gould,  but  nothing  has 
ever  been  told  by  him,  nor  did  the  will  reveal  any- 
thing definite  about  it.  Little  difference  does  it 
make  whether  it  was  $70,000,000  or  Si 70,000,000,  so 
long  as  it  was  the  greatest  that  ever  one  man  accu- 
mulated in  his  lifetime. 

Mr.  Gould  never  intended  that  anybody  should 
know  while  he  was  living,  and  he  saw  that  his  wishes 
were  carried  out  in  the  matter.  Sixty  millions  is  the 
figure  most  frequently  mentioned,  but  generally  as 
a  minimum,  with  a  round  hundred  millions  as  the 
other  limit. 

The  New  York  Tribune  published  the  following 
estimate  of  his  fortune  the  morning  after  his  death, 
and  it  is  probably  as  accurate  as  any  that  can  be 
made  without  access  to  the  will  and  the  records 
themselves: 

"There  is  considerable  divergence  in  the  opinions 
of  men  who  are  acquainted  with  Mr.  Gould's  affairs 
as  to  the  value  of  the  estate  which  will  fall  to  his 


THE  GREAT  FORTUNE  AND  ITS  INHERITORS.      25 1 


heirs.  Although  his  investments  have  been  known 
to  be  in  certain  distinct  lines,  the  reticence  of  Mr. 
Gould  with  regard  to  many  of  his  transactions  has  left 
a  considerable  margin  between  maximum  and  mini- 
mum estimates.  The  character  of  many  of  the  se- 
curities which  are  his  is  also  so  unsettled  that  there 
is  room  for  an  extreme  range  of  estimates.  First  in 
the  list  of  his  investments  are  Western  Union  and 
Manhattan,  and  there  is  little  doubt  that  his  hold- 
ings in  these  two  properties  aggregate  from  $SSr 
000,000  to  $40,000,000  market  value.  Of  Missouri 
Pacific  stock  he  may  have  held  from  $9,000,000  to 
$11,000,000,  and  at  current  prices  the  value  of  his 
holdings  of  this  property  probably  reached  $5,000,- 
000.  The  Missouri  Pacific  system  is  so  complicated 
with  bond  issues  that  it  is  difficult  even  for  his 
friends  to  make  a  trustworthy  guess  as  to  his  posses- 
sions of  the  various  issues  of  bonds.  Counting  in 
the  St.  Louis  and  Iron  Mountain  issues,  the  different 
bonds  of  the  various  lines  embraced  in  the  Missouri 
Pacific  system  and  the  consolidated  issues  on  the 
system  were  held  by  Mr.  Gould  to  the  extent  of 
$20,000,000  or  more  in  market  value.  He  was 
credited  with  holding  about  220,000  shares  of  West- 
ern Union  stock  and  something  like  1 10,000  shares 
of  Manhattan.  At  the  recent  Stock  Exchange 
figures  the  value  of  these  two  interests  may  be  con- 
servatively placed  at  $36,000,000.  Mr.  Gould's  in- 
vestments in  Wabash  are  large,  but  their  market 
worth  is  not  commensurate  with  the  par  value.  It 
would  be  a  generous  estimate  to  place  these  hold- 


252      THE  GREAT  FORTUNE  AND  ITS  INHERITORS. 


ings  at  a  value  of  ;^io,ooo,ooo.  The  same  amount 
may  represent  Mr.  Gould's  holdings  of  the  securities 
of  the  Texas  and  Pacific  railway.  It  is  difficult  to 
say  how  largely  he  was  interested  in  Union  Pacific 
securities,  but  he  was  a  holder  of  about  ;^2,ooo,ooo 
collateral  trust  notes  of  the  Union  Pacific,  taken  as 
security  for  money  advances. 

Mr.  Gould  was  never  known  as  a  large  investor 
in  government  bonds.  He  is  said,  though,  to  have 
subscribed  liberally  to  the  debenture  bonds  of  the 
New  York  Central.  A  mass  of  miscellaneous  securi- 
ties must  be  counted  in  the  aggregate,  including 
bonds  of  coal  properties  on  the  line  of  the  Missouri 
Pacific,  southern  ventures  and  a  host  of  bonds  and 
stocks  of  varying  degrees  of  worth  and  promise. 

The  possessions  of  Mr.  Gould  at  Irvington-on- 
the-Hudson-  and  his  home  in  this  city  may  be  esti- 
mated at  ;S 1, 000,000.  Far  more  than  this  amount 
has  been  invested  in  the  two  properties,  the  decora- 
tions of  the  Fifth  avenue  house  and  the  extensive 
conservatory  alone  commanding  the  expenditure  of 
important  sums.  It  is  also  said  that  Mr.  Gould  owns 
considerable  real  estate  in  the  West.  He  is  under- 
stood to  have  considerable  property  in  St.  Louis 
which  is  productive,  and  he  is  believed  to  have  made 
purchases  of  improved  property  in  Chicago  after  the 
World's  Fair  enterprise  became  assured  of  success. 
But  much  of  his  real  estate  investments  in  Texas 
and  other  parts  of  the  Southwest,  and  in  Southern 
California,  is  of  a  nature  that  does  not  yield  imme- 
diate returns. 


THE  GREAT  FORTUNE  AND  ITS  INHERITORS.  253 


There  is  an  agreement  among  several  men  who 
have  means  of  estimating  Mr.  Gould's  wealth  that 
its  aggregate  value  may  be  placed  around  $100,000,- 
000.  A  few  estimates  carry  the  value  higher,  while 
the  conservative  view  would  put  the  sum  at  $80,000,- 
000  or  $90,000,000.  Russell  Sage  estimates  his 
friend's  estate  at  $100,000,000,  but  Washington  E. 
Connor  is  said  to  have  placed  his  estimate  at  a  con- 
siderably smaller  figure.  Another  man,  who  has 
some  knowledge  of  Mr.  Gould's  affairs,  stated 
that  Mr.  Gould  had  an  annual  income  of  $5,000,- 
000,  and  that,  considering  the  character  of  much  of 
the  property  held  by  Mr.  Gould,  it  was  safe  to  say 
that  this  income  must  be  based  on  a  principal  of 
$100,000,000  or  more.  Allowing  for  the  difference 
in  estimates  made  by  those  persons  who  should 
know  the  facts,  it  is  believed  that  the  following  table 
presents  to  as  close  a  degree  as  is  possible  the  cur- 
rent value  of  the  Gould  estate,  and  of  its  principal 
constituents: 


Estimated 

Holdings.  Value. 

Western  Union  stock  ;   $22,000,000 

Manhattan  stock  «  14,000.000 

Missouri  Pacific  stock   5.000.000 

Missouri  Pacific  system  bonds   20,000.000 

Union  Pacific  stock   5,000,000 

Union  Pacific  bonds  or  notes   2,000,000 

Wabash  stock   3,000,000 

Wabash  bonds   5,000,000 

Texas  and  Pacific  stock   5,000,000 

Texas  and  Pacific  bonds   5,000,000 

Other  securities   10,000,000 

Real  estate,  etc   4,000,000 


Total  $100,000,000 


254      THE  GREAT  FORTUNE  AND  ITS  INHERITORS. 


Estimates  made  by  other  newspapers  and  other 
financiers,  however,  who  have  equally  good  authori- 
ties on  which  to  base  their  opinions,  vary  all  the  way 
from  $50,000,000  to  $150,000,000. 

In  calculating  the  amount  of  Mr.  Gould's  estate, 
the  first  difficulty  met  with  lies  in  the  fact  that  the 
records  of  his  various  companies  by  no  means  tell 
the  story  of  his  holdings  in  their  securities.  More 
even  than  many  of  his  rivals,  he  has  followed  the 
policy  of  getting  along  without  going  through  the 
formality  of  letting  the  extent  of  his  ownership 
appear  on  the  books  of  the  companies.  Besides, 
although  he  reduced  the  number  of  his  investments 
in  the  last  few  years — at  least  the  street  says  he  did 
so — he  had  interests  extending  over  a  wide  field. 

In  only  one  branch  of  investments  did  Mr.  Gould 
do  very  little,  and  that  was  in  real  estate.  His  pos- 
sessions of  real  property  were  far  smaller  than  those 
of  many  men  not  one-tenth  as  wealthy.  He  had 
his  place  at  Irvington  which  represents  $750,000 
to  $1,000,000,  and  his  Fifth  avenue  house,  worth 
$300,000  to  $400,000.  Several  years  ago  he  bought 
real  estate  in  St.  Louis,  which  the  Missouri  Pacific 
expected  to  use  for  headquarters.  He  paid  $150,000 
for  this  piece  of  property,  which  is  supposed  to  be 
worth  three  times  that  amount  now. 

In  spite  of  his  policy  of  concentrating  his  hold- 
ings in  his  later  years,  the  list  of  companies  in  which 
Mr.  Gould  had  large  interests  is  an  imposing  one. 
The  principal  corporations  with  which  he  was  con- 
nected at  the  last  include  the  Missouri  Pacific  rail- 


THE  GREAT  FORTUNE  AND  ITS  INHERITORS.  255 


road,  the  St.  Louis  and  Iron  Mountain,  the  Inter- 
national and  Great  Northern,  Richmond  Terminal, 
the  Texas  Pacific,  the  Union  Pacific,  the  Wabash, 
the  St.  Louis  Southwestern,  the  Manhattan  Elevated 
road,  the  Pacific  Mail  Steamship  Company,  and  the 
Western  Union  Telegraph  Company. 

Moreover,  these  corporations  cover  scores  of 
smaller  and  subordinate  companies.  Through  Mis- 
souri Pacific  Mr.  Gould  was  interested  in  something 
like  fifty  companies,  and  the  other  great  systems 
would  run  the  list  of  the  subordinate  concerns  up 
into  the  hundreds.  As  president  of  the  Union  Pacific, 
Charles  Francis  Adams  once  testified  that  he  did 
not  know  how  many  presidencies  he  held,  and  Mr. 
Gould  would  have  had  an  excuse  several  times  better 
than  Mr.  Adams  possessed  for  not  having  at  his 
finger  ends  the  number  of  concerns  with  which  he 
was  connected.  At  his  office  yesterday  nobody 
would  venture  to  say  what  the  list  would  foot  up. 

Mr.  Gould  was  president  of  the  Missouri  Pacific, 
the  Manhattan  Elevated,  the  Texas  Pacific,  the  St. 
Louis  and  Iron  Mountain,  the  International  and  Great 
Northern,  and  a  director  in  Richmond  Terminal, 
Western  Union  and  Union  Pacific.  He  is  credited 
with  a  control  of  the  stock  of  the  elevated  road  and 
a  large  amount  of  its  bonds;  with  the  largest  indi- 
vidual holding  in  Western  Union  stock,  besides 
stocks  and  bonds  of  its  leased  lines;  a  control  of 
Missouri  Pacific  stock  and  large  amounts  of  its  bonds, 
particularly  the  new  issues  of  fives;  a  large  block  of 
Wabash,  the  amount  at  times  running  up  to  40,000 


256     THE  GREAT  FORTUNE  AND  ITS  INHERITORS. 


shares;  an  interest  in  Union  Pacific,  including,  per- 
haps, 1,000,000  of  the  collateral  trust  bonds;  heavy 
investments  in  the  other  lines  known  as  Gould 
properties;  a  block  of  New  York  and  Northern 
securities,  and  a  control,  with  Russell  Sage,  of  the 
St.  Louis  Southwestern. 

In  Wall  street  the  Gould  will  was  accepted  with 
something  akin  to  a  vote  of  thanks.  The  satisfac- 
tion was  in  the  fact  that  there  was  to  be  no  partition 
sale,  with  the  flinging  upon  the  market  of  such  a 
batch  of  easily  affected  stocks  as  Jay  Gould  had 
gathered.  Even  a  partition  of  the  securities  in 
the  will  would  have  made  many  owners  and  possibl)^ 
clashing  of  interests,  where  now  one  hand  would 
cast  the  vote  represented  by  this  enormous  aggre- 
gate of  stocks.  This  voting  power  would  rest  abso- 
lutely and  individually  with  George,  and  would  make 
him  even  more  than  his  father  a  power  in  Wall 
street,  at  least  for  a  time. 

Just  now  he  is  getting  open  praise  even  far 
beyond  what  appears  in  the  will  of  his  great  business 
ability.  Some  who  know  him  by  his  acts  say  that 
his  weak  points  are  his  combative  obstinacy  and  his 
penuriousness.  Stories  upon  stories  are  told  of  his 
miserly  disposition,  but  they  come  in  large  part  from 
roysterers  who  looked  upon  the  eldest  son  of  Gould 
as  under  some  sort  of  obligation  to  put  up  the  cash 
for  their  festivities  when  out  in  company.  George 
did  nothing  of  the  sort,  but  had  a  sharp  account  for 
each  penny  expended,  and  kept  himself  posted  in 
prices  of  things  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest  grade. 


THE  GREAT  "FORTUNE  AND  ITS  INHERITORS.  257 


He  has  not  his  father's  slow-moving  anger  so  easily 
set  aside  for  future  use  when  an  enemy  was  to  be 
crushed.  Instead,  the  young  man  is  apt  to  flare  up 
and  show  his  hand  to  his  own  detriment. 

When  it  comes  to  the  fighting  to  hold  his  own 
against  competition,  which  will  be  necessary  in  all 
of  the  properties  left  by  the  multi-millionaire,  George 
will  be  met  by  a  warfare  entirely  different  from  that 
directed  against  Gould  senior.  The  fact  that  all  the 
wealth,  so  to  speak,  is  left  in  one  pile,  simplifies  the 
war  for  its  possession,  and  from  this  time  on  George 
Gould  will  be  one  of  the  best  watched,  best  courted 
and  very  soon  best  hated  men  in  America.  His 
training  has  been  a  very  narrow  one.  He  has  not 
studied  finance  in  any  large  school.  Schooling  of 
any  sort  has  been  distasteful  to  him,  and  W'hile  not 
positively  illiterate,  he  has  no  taste  for  books  even 
on  financial  questions,  but  has  a  tremendous  head 
for  figures  and  loves  plenty  of  bustle  in  his  work. 

The  lack  of  charitable  bequests  did  not  surprise 
Wall  street,  but  there  w^as  no  dearth  of  comment  on 
the  matrimonial  board  into  which  four  of  the  chil- 
dren have  been  constituted,  with  the  two  Mrs. 
Goulds  as  ex-officio  advisory  members.  Bets  were 
offered  that  if  the  other  members  of  the  household 
attempted  to  act  as  a  committee  of  the  whole  when 
an  engagement  was  to  be  announced,  that  in  some 
shape  the  intervention  of  lawyers  would  be  neces- 
sary, and  all  the  possibilities  of  this  selection  of 
bride  and  bridegroom  by  arbitration  were  discussed. 
As  it  stands  now,  an  obstinate  love  match  without 


258      THE  GREAT  FORTUNE  AND  ITS  INHERITORS. 

family  consent  may  cost  Howard  or  Frank,  or  Helen 
or  Anna,  a  round  sum  of  nearly  $8,000,000,  and  put 
this  amount  into  the  other  five  pockets  of  the  pres- 
ent sextette. 

The  death  of  Jay  Gould  leaves  vacant  the  presi- 
dency of  the  Missouri  Pacific  railway,  the  Texas 
Pacific,  the  International  and  Great  Northern  and 
Manhattan  Railway  Company.  George  J.  Gould,  it 
is  expected,  will  take  his  father's  place  in  these 
companies.  In  the  Western  Union  company  no 
position  becomes  vacant,  except  that  of  a  member- 
ship of  the  board  of  directors. 

George  Gould  is  president  of  the  Pacific  Mail 
Steamship  Company.  He  is  first  vice-president  of 
the  Manhattan  railroad  and  of  the  Texas  Pacific. 
He  is  second  vice-president  of  the  Missouri  Pacific 
and  the  St.  Louis  and  Iron  Mountain  road.  He  is 
a  vice-president  of  the  Western  Union  Telegraph 
Company,  and  a  member  of  the  executive  com- 
mittee of  its  board  of  directors.  He  is  a  director  in 
the  Wabash  and  the  International  and  Great  North- 
ern.   He  is  a  member  of  the  Stock  Exchange. 

Edwin  Gould,  the  second  son,  has  a  shorter  list 
of  ofifices.  He  is  president  of  the  St.  Louis  South- 
western, a  director  in  Western  Union  and  a  member 
of  the  executive  committee,  and  a  director  in  the 
Manhattan  and  Missouri  Pacific  railroad  compa- 
nies. He  has  done  some  very  successful  work  in 
finance,  and  has  been  counted  a  very  shrewd  oper- 
ator from  the  beginning  of  his  business  career.  The 
story  is  told  of  him  that  when  he  was  starting  out  in 


THE  GREAT  FORTUI^E  AND  ITS  INHERITORS.  259 


money-making  his  father  decided  to  test  his  mettle, 
and  was  highly  delighted  when  the  youth  came  out 
of  the  conflict  with  flying  colors.  Edwin  Gould  is  a 
member  of  the  Consolidated  Exchange. 

Howard  Gould,  the  third  son,  is  getting  his  first 
experience  in  business.  He  has  been  given  as  a 
start  a  seat  in  the  directorate  of  the  International 
and  Great  Northern  Railroad  Company. 

Considerable  interest  attaches  to  the  liability  of 
the  Gould  estate  for  the  payment  of  an  inheritance 
tax.  While  the  terms  of  the  will  are  of  course  not 
known,  and  the  question  of  public  bequests  is  not 
settled,  the  Wall  street  idea  is  that  such  bequests,  if 
they  exist,  are  not  likely  to  cut  into  the  total  to  any 
appreciable  extent.  Under  the  laws  of  1892  property 
bequeathed  to  Mr.  Gould's  children  will  be  liable 
to  a  tax  of  I  per  cent.    Section  2  of  chapter  399  says : 

"When  the  property  or  any  beneficial  interest 
therein  passes,  by  any  such  transfer,  to  or  for  the  use 
of  any  father,  mother,  husband,  wife,  child,  brother, 
sister,  wife  or  widow  of  a  son,  or  the  husband  of  a 
daughter,  or  any  child  or  children  adopted  as  such  in 
conformity  with  the  laws  of  this  state,  or  to  any  per- 
son to  whom  any  such  decedent,  grantor,  donor,  or 
vendor  for  not  less  than  ten  years  prior  to  such  trans- 
fer stood  in  the  mutually-acknowledged  relation  of  a 
parent,  or  to  any  lineal  descendant  of  such  decedent 
grantor,  donor,  or  vendor  born  in  lawful  wedlock,  such 
transfer  shall  not  be  taxable  under  this  act  unless  it  is 
personal  property  to  the  value  of  $10,000  or  more,  in 
which  case  it  shall  be  taxable  under  this  act  at  the 
rate  of  i  per  centum  upon  the  clear  market  value  of 
such  property." 

17 


260     THE  GREAT  FORTUNE  AND  ITS  INHERITORS. 

The  next  section  makes  the  tax  a  lien  upon  the 
property  until  it  is  paid.  The  tax  is  to  be  collected 
by  the  controller  of  the  county.  Payment  within 
six  months  gives  a  discount  of  5  per  cent.;  if  it  is 
not  made  in  eighteen  months  a  penalty  of  10  per 
cent,  is  provided.  The  controller's  fee  is  5  per  cent, 
on  the  first  $50,000  of  the  tax,  3  percent,  on  the  sec- 
ond $50,000,  and  I  per  cent,  on  the  rest.  The  bal- 
ance of  the  tax  is  to  be  paid  into  the  State  Treasury. 

A  tax  of  I  per  cent,  on  the  estate  should  yield 
from  $650,000  to  $1,000,000,  according  to  which  of 
the  limits  on  the  estimate  approaches  the  real  valu- 
ation. The  controller  accordingly  would  figure  on 
a  fee  of  from  $8,000  to  $13,000. 

It  was  said  at  the  corporation  counsel's  office 
that  if  it  shall  be  proved  that  Mr.  Gould  has  left  his 
personal  property,  especially  his  railroad  interests,  in 
hands  of  trustees  for  a  term  of  years,  the  interest  to 
go  to  his  children,  the  fact  that  the  estate  is  in  the 
hands  of  trustees  cannot  prevent  the  state  from 
levying  and  collecting  the  inheritance  tax. 

Said  one  of  the  assistant  corporation  counsels: 
"  If  Mr.  Gould  could  by  the  terms  of  his  will,  by 
deed  or  gift  or  otherwise,  make  such  a  disposition 
of  his  estate  as  to  render  the  law  in  such  cases  nuga- 
tory, his  children  and  heirs  to  the  remotest  gener- 
ation, when  they  came  to  devise  thisir  property, 
could  do  the  same  thing,  and  the  estate  would  thus 
be  perpetually  barred  of  its  rights.  I  believe  that 
the  personal  estate  that  Mr.  Gould  has  left  for 
the  benefit  of  his  children,  no  matter  in  what  form, 


THE  GREAT  FORTUNE  AND  ITS  INHERITORS.  26l 


is  taxable  at  i  per  cent.  All  property  left  out  of 
lineal  descent  would  be  taxed  at  5  per  cent,  on  its 
clear  market  value." 

In  spite  of  Jay  Gould's  many  millions,  he  was 
down  on  the  tax-lists  for  very  modest  amounts.  He 
seems  to  have  had  as  much  ability  in  keeping  down 
his  taxes  as  in  piling  up  his  millions.  Despite  his 
immense  accumulations,  he  paid  taxes  on  only 
$500,000  in  personal  property.  The  real  estate  on 
which  he  paid  directly  was  confined  to  the  Grand 
Opera  House,  of  which  he  was  the  owner,  and  to  his 
home  on  Fifth  avenue.  At  one  time  he  also  paid 
the  taxes  on  his  son's  home  on  East  Forty-seventh 
street,  but  after  that  formally  passed  out  of  his  pos- 
session he  was,  of  course,  relieved  from  paying  any 
further  taxes  on  that  property. 

Notwithstanding  the  very  conservative  estimate 
placed  upon  the  value  of  his  personal  holdings,  Mr. 
Gould  tried,  a  few  years  ago,  to  escape  paying  any 
personal  taxes  at  all  in  this  city.  He  urged  the 
familiar  plea  of  outside  residence,  and  because  he 
paid  personal  taxes  in  Westchester  county  on  his 
belongings  at  his  country  home  at  Irvington,  insisted 
that  he  was  being  unfairly  treated  in  being  compelled 
to  pay  even  on  that  supposititious  $500,000  of  personal 
property  in  this  city.  He  did  not  press  the  matter, 
however,  and  continued  to  allow  his  personal  prop- 
erty to  be  placed  on  the  tax-list  at  $500,000. 

Commissioner  Baker,  of  the  tax  department, 
said  that  it  was  impossible  to  tell  just  what  Mr. 


262     THE  GREAT  FORTUNE  AND  ITS  INHERITORS. 


Gould's  holdings  in  real  estate  in  New  York  really 
amounted  to. 

"Real  estate,"  Mr.  Baker  explained,  "is  entered 
on  the  books  of  the  tax  department  by  number 
only.  The  only  way  to  get  any  idea  there  as  to  the 
ownership  of  a  piece  of  property  is  to  see  who  paid 
the  taxes  on  it.  According  to  this  test,  the  real 
estate  on  which  Mr.  Gould  paid  taxes  in  New  York 
is  confined  to  his  residence.  The  Manhattan  Rail- 
road Company  is  a  large  holder  of  real  estate,  but 
the  company  pays  its  own  taxes,  of  course,  and  the 
only  place  Mr.  Gould's  name  appears  on  the  tax 
department  books  is  in  relation  to  his  residence  and 
the  admitted  $500,000  of  personal  property." 

Ex-Tax  Commissioner  Coleman  added  the  opera 
house  property  to  the  list  that  Mr.  Gould  paid  on 
personally. 

*'  The  peculiarity  of  the  matter,"  said  Mr.  Cole- 
man, "is  that  Gould  was  never  really  in  business  in 
New  York  City.  His  wealth  was  very  largely  in 
stocks  that  had  no  particular  value  by  themselves 
and  that  were  not  even  on  the  market.  He  made 
his  money  by  taking  hold  of  almost  bankrupt  com- 
panies, getting  control  of  the  common  stock  that 
had  no  particular  value  beyond  its  voting  power,  and 
then  by  manipulating  things  to  his  o'wn  interest. 

"Besides,  his  various  railroad  stocks,  like  the 
Union  Pacific,  Wabash,  Texas  and  Kansas  Pacific, 
were  not  assessable.  The  bonds  that  were  assess- 
able were  generally  those  of  roads  that  had  been 
reorganized  and  reorganized  till  any  estimate  of  value 


THE  GREAT  FORTUNE  AND  ITS  INHERITORS.  263 


became  a  pure  matter  of  guesswork.  Then  he  could 
come  in  and  swear  down  the  valuations." 

The  tax  commissioners  are  compelled  to  take 
any  man's  affidavit  as  to  the  value  of  his  personal 
property,  and,  as  Commissioner  Baker  put  it,  ''Where 
it's  a  question  of  dollars  and  cents,  we  find  every 
man's  conscience  becomes  rather  pliable." 

Mr.  Gould  seems  not  to  have  cared  to  pass  as  an 
exception  to  so  well-established  a  rule,  and  hence 
the  modest  estimate  he  placed  on  his  earthly  pos- 
sessions for  the  purposes  of  the  tax  collector.  As 
a  result  of  this  trustful  feature  of  the  assessment 
laws,  $25,000  a  year  is  said  to  be  an  ample  estimate 
for  the  entire  amount  of  annual  taxes  Mr.  Gould 
paid  on  his  variously  estimated  millions. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 


JAY  Gould's  relations  with  the  public. 
HERE  are  interesting  features  of  the  life  of  Jay 


X  Gould  regarding  his  relations  with  the  public, 
the  church,  the  press  and  the  people  whom  he  met. 

Jay  Gould  was  not  what  is  called  a  religious  man. 
He  was  a  pewholder  in  the  Presbyterian  church  at 
Irvington  and  in  the  Rev.  Dr.  Paxton's  church  on 
West  Forty-second  street,  but  not  a  communicant. 
If  he  ever  expressed  any  religious  views  it  was  to 
the  Rev.  Dr.  Paxton.  Certainly  he  did  not  to  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Henry  M.  MacCracken,  chancellor  of  the 
University,  nor  to  the  Rev.  Roderick  Terry,  with 
v^'hom  he  was  on  intimate  terms  of  friendship.  Dr. 
Terry  said: 

"There  was  no  pretense  about  Mr.  Gould.  He 
never  made  any  public  profession  of  Christianity 
that  I  know  of.  On  the  subject  of  religion,  as  on  so 
many  others,  he  was  extremely  reticent,  unless  he 
unbosomed  himself  to  his  pastor.  Dr.  Paxton.  He 
certainly  never  talked  with  me  about  his  feelings  on 
the  subject  of  religion,  though  the  opportunity 
offered  more  than  once." 

Mr.  Gould's  wife  was  a  member  of  the  South  Re- 
formed church  for  many  years,  but  afterward  be- 
came a  Presbyterian.    The  millionaire  of  late  years 


264 


'■S  PRIVATE  CAR  AM.  HIS  YACH  1  "atAL.J 


JAY  Gould's  relations  with  the  public.  265 


had  been  a  frequent  attendant  at  the  Rev.  Dr.  Pax- 
ton's  church  and  at  the  Presbyterian  church  at 
Irvington-on-the-Hudson,  near  his  country  place. 
An  old  friend  of  the  family  said  that  when  a  very 
young  man  Jay  Gould  became  converted  at  a  Metho- 
dist revival  meeting.    This  gentleman  said: 

"  When  Jay  Gould  was  a  young  man  he  was  con- 
verted in  a  Methodist  church  at  Roxbury,  Delaware 
county,  N.  Y.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Dutcher,  father  of  Rev. 
E.  C.  Dutcher,  now  pastor  of  the  Methodist  Episco- 
pal church  in  Nyack,  Newark  conference,  was  pastor 
in  charge  of  the  Roxbury  church.  The  elder  Mr. 
Dutcher  was  holding  a  series  of  revival  meetings. 
The  little  Delaware  county  church  was  crowded 
night  after  night.  , 

''At  one  of  the  meetings,  after  a  specially  earnest  . 
appeal  by  the  venerable  preacher,  young  Gould  went 
forward  to  the  altar  and  professed  conversion.  He 
subsequently  connected  himself  with  the  Presbyte- 
rians. The  late  Rev.  Dr.  Jacob  West,  then  corre- 
sponding secretary  of  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions 
of  the  Dutch  Reformed  church,  preached  a  number 
of  times  in  the  Roxbury  Reformed  church.  Gould 
always  attended,  and  the  Rev.  Dr.  West  frequently 
said  Gould  was  always  a  remarkably  attentive 
listener." 

Mr.  Gould's  name  was  discussed  most  promi- 
nently in  connection  with  church  work  last  February, 
when  he  gave  his  check  for  $10,000  to  the  Rev.  Dr. 
John  Hall.  The  circumstances  aroused  much  com- 
ment and  considerable  unfavorable  criticism. 


266    JAY  Gould's  relations  with  the  public. 

On  Tuesday  evening,  February  23d,  the  Gould 
mansion  was  handsomely  lighted  up.  Over  one 
hundred  invitations  had  been  issued  by  Mr.  Gould 
and  his  daughter,  Miss  Helen  Gould,  to  prominent 
Presbyterians  and  members  of  the  Presbyterian 
Board  of  Church  Extension.  It  was  understood  by 
those  receiving  the  invitations  that  the  reception 
was  solely  for  the  purpose  of  raising  funds,  Mr. 
and  Miss  Gould  received  the  guests.  They  were 
assisted  by  Mrs.  Russell  Sage  and  Mrs.  J.  P.  Munn. 
The  Rev.  Dr.  Paxton  said,  in  the  course  of  his  open- 
ing address  to  the  guests: 

"When  I  asked  Mr.  Gould  about  opening  his 
home  for  a  meeting  of  the  friends  of  Presbyterian 
church  extension,  without  hesitation  or  deliberation 
he  and  Miss  Gould  said  at  once,  and  said  it  cor- 
dially: 'Certainly,  with  great  pleasure,'  and  Mr. 
Gould  added:  'I  believe  in  church  extension  on 
Manhattan  Island.'  But  Mr.  Gould  has  taken 
another  step  in  the  right  direction",  for  since  he 
asked  us  here — Mr.  Sage  told  me  this — Mr.  Gould, 
who  is  superficial  in  nothing,  wanted  to  know  what 
church  extension  is,  and  what  church  ought  to  be 
extended,  and  so  he  read  our  confession  of  faith. 

"I  am  not  certain  of  that,  for  he  and  the  revision 
and  new  creed  people  would  not  agree;  he  is  old 
school;  he  believes  in  obeying  marching  orders,  like 
Wellington;  in  walking  in  the  old  paths,  like  the 
New  York  Observer.  But  one  thing,  Mr.  Sage  told 
me,  our  host  has  made  up  his  mind  on,  and  that  was 
that  our  form  of  church  government  was  the  most 


JAY  GOULD*S  RELATIONS  WITH  THE  PUBLIC.  267 


just,  the  most  republican,  the  best  in  the  world. 
Therefore,  our  host  is  not  only  in  favor  of  church 
extension  but  of  Presbyterian  church  extension. 
He  wants  no  popery,  no  prelacy,  no  three  orders  in 
a  church  in  a  land  where  all  are  equal  in  rights  and 
before  the  law.  I  am  sure  this  information  will 
warm  Dr.  Hall's  heart  and  impart  to  his  speech 
increased  fervor  when  he  speaks  to-night. 

"We  are  here  to  face  the  foe,  to  take  heart  of 
hope,  to  give  our  money,  our  prayers,  our  tribute, 
our  toil,  knowing  no  such  word  as  fail,  to  this  good 
cause  of  extending,  as  Mr.  Gould  says,  the  only 
true,  holy,  catholic,  American  church -our  old  blue- 
bordered  Presbyterian  denomination." 

"I  have  never  met  Mr.  Gould  but  once  before," 
said  the  Rev.  Dr.  Hall,  "and  that  was  many  years 
ago.  A  gentleman  in  Chicago  wrote  me  regarding  a 
missionary,  who  had  been  called  back  from  China 
by  the  illness  of  his  wife.  The  wife  had  recovered 
after  the  missionary's  return,  and  the  couple  wanted 
to  return  to  China  again.  The  Chicago  gentleman 
wanted  to  know  if  I  could  not  secure  a  free  pass  for 
the  man.  I  went  to  the  railroad  authorities,  and 
was  referred  to  Mr.  Gould. 

'T  entered  the  room  with  fear  and  trembling  and 
with  many  misgivings.  I  had  never  seen  Mr.  Gould, 
and  you  cap  all  sympathize  with  my  feelings.  He 
received  me  cordially  and  listened  to  all  I  had  to 
say.  He  said  he  thought  it  was  a  very  deserving 
case  and  asked  me  to  leave  a  memorandum  of  it. 
The  next  day  I  received  a  communication  from  him 


268    JAY  Gould's  relations  with  the  public. 


containing  a  ticket  for  the  railway  journey  and 
another  for  the  missionary's  passage  to  his  desti- 
nation. " 

About  $20,000  was  subscribed  at  this  reception, 
and  Jay  Gould  gave  his  check  for  $10,000.  The 
Rev.  Dr.  Parkhurst  was  among  those  who  criticised 
the  affair  as  an  ostentatious  display  of  wealth  in  the 
name  of  religion.  He  wanted  to  know  where  Mr. 
Gould  got  that  $io,ooo. 

The  religious  side  of  Mr.  Gould's  life,  so  far  as 
the  public  knew  anything  of  it,  was  fully  told  at 
this  church-extension  reception. 

Mr.  Gould  was  interested  in  the  extension  of  the 
University  of  the  City  of  New  York.  Chancellor 
MacCrack®n  said: 

"Mr.  Gould  was  very  much  interested  in  the  uni- 
versity from  his  interest  in  telegraphy  and  telegraph 
lines  and  the  fact  that  in  this  building  the  first  tele- 
graph had  its  horiie.  Prof.  Morse  labored  here  fifty- 
five  years  ago,  and  was  assisted  by  two  of  the  uni- 
versity's professors.  Profs.  Gail  and  Vail. 

*T  had  known  Mr.  Gould  for  five  years,  and  from 
the  beginning  of  our  acquaintance  he  evinced  an 
interest  in  the  close  relation  between  the  university 
and  telegraphy,  and  he  made  it  a  favorite  subject  of 
conversation.  He  made  the  largest  single  subscrip- 
tion toward-  our  purchase  of  the  uptown  grounds, 
$25,000,  and  he  gave  an  additional  conditional  pledge 
which  I  have  never  made  public  and  shall  not  yet." 

In  his  active,  tempestuous  business  career  one 
might  infer  that  Jay  Gould  had  little  time  and  less 


JAY  Gould's  relations  with  the  public.  269 


inclination  to  take  up  charitable  work  to  any  extent. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  what  little  is  known  of  him  in 
this  connection  became  public  within  a  very  recent 
period.  His  friends  say  he  gave  largely  and  was 
generous  to  a  degree  when  he  was  assured  of  the 
genuineness  of  a  reported  case  of  distress.  He 
never,  so  far  as  can  be  learned,  made  use  of  any 
public  organization  in  the  disbursement  of  funds  for 
any  charitable  object.  Whatever  he  did  he  pre- 
ferred to  do  with  his  characteristic  secrecy. 

He  was  greatly  influenced  by  his  family  in  giving, 
and  through  his  children  quite  a  large  number  of  in- 
stitutions were  aided  by  the  money  of  the  financier. 
For  instance,  his  daughter  Helen,  of  whom  he  was 
exceedingly  fond,  is  interested  in  many  organiza- 
tions engaged  in  charity  work.  Through  her  Jay 
Gould  has  given  frequently  and  largely. 

A  pretty  story  is  told  of  the  charity  organization 
society  that  existed  in  Mr.  Gould's  own  household. 
Its  sessions  were  held  each  morning  after  breakfast. 
Like  other  rich  men,  he  was  assailed  constantly  with 
showers  of  begging  letters.  These  were  regularly 
sorted  out  every  morning,  and  each  member  of  the 
family  chose  as  many  from  the  pile  as  desired  until 
none  were  left.  If  a  letter  appeared  to  describe  a 
case  of  real  need  it  was  placed  in  the  center  of  the 
table.   The  others  were  burned. 

Then  ensued  quiet  investigation,  conducted  as 
secretly  as  the  operations  of  the  closest  detective 
bureau.  People  in  want  were  given  aid  commen- 
surate with  the  needs  of  the  particular  case,  but 


1'jo    JAY  Gould's  relations  with  the  public. 


were  never  able  to  thank  the  donor,  for  the  identity 
of  the  giver  was  never  disclosed.  In  this  way,  it  is 
said,  many  hundreds  of  poor  people  were  relieved. 

Another  method  employed  was  to  look  up  cases 
of  distress  independent  of  the  petitions  poured  in  by 
mail.  To  just  what  extent  this  charitable  work  was 
carried  on  will  never  be  known,  for  those  conversant 
with  it  will  not  speak  of  it. 

Mr.  Gould's  name  is  unidentified  with  any  great 
public  benefactions.  Astor  and  Tilden  founded  li- 
braries. Drew  established  a  theological  seminary, 
George  I.  Seney  distributed  millions  and  Vander- 
bilt  endowed  a  hospital,  but  Gould's  purse  v\'as 
never  opened  by  any  such  generous  ambition.  He 
was  kind  to  his  relatives,  gave  his  brother  a  good 
position  in  the  Missouri  Pacific  railroad  and  built 
his  sisters  a  school  in  Camden.  He  gave  liberally 
to  alleviate  the  suffering  by  the  Chicago  fire  and  by 
the  Memphis  yellow-fever  plague,  made  big  sub- 
scriptions to  the  Grant  and  Garfield  funds,  and 
added  eighty  acres  to  the  Mount  Vernon  property. 
This  was  nearly  all  he  did  in  a  public  way.  Gould's 
politics  sprang  from  his  pocket,  not  from  his  patri- 
otism. He  has  already  been  quoted  as  saying  that 
"in  Republican  districts  he  was  a  Republican,  in 
Democratic  districts  a  Democrat,  and  in  all  an  Erie 
man."  But  Mr.  Gould  was  more  a  Republican  than 
anything  else,  for  he  obtained,  or  thought  he  could 
obtain,  more  recognition  and  protection  from  that 
party  than  from  the  Democratic.  The  Republican 
party  was  the  party  of  large  land  grants,  of  liberal 


JAY  Gould's  relations  with  the  public.  271 


appropriations  and  of  corporation  tendencies.  In 
presidential  elections  Mr.  Gould  often  contributed 
heavily  to  the  Republican  campaign  fund,  and  his 
check  was  always  solicited  and  joyfully  received. 
In  1880  his  money  was  probably  part  of  that  which 
bought  Indiana  for  the  Republicans,  and  it  was 
charged  that  he  obtained  reward  from  President 
Garfield  in  the  appointment  of  Stanley  Matthews  as 
associate  justice  of  the  Supreme  Court,  whose  views 
relative  to  the  Pacific  railroads  and  other  corpora- 
tion questions  were  understood  to  be  favorable  to 
Gould.  This  charge,  of  course,  was  hard  to  prove, 
and  may  be  unjust  to  both  Garfield  and  Matthews. 

In  1884  Gouldsupported  Blaine.  He  was  present 
at  the  celebrated  millionaire  dinner  given  to  Blaine 
at  Delmonico's  two  or  three  evenings  before  the 
election,  and  which,  with  the  Burchard  incident, 
probably  turned  the  evenly-balanced  scales  of  public 
opinion  against  the  Maine  statesman.  Gould's 
money  was  powerful  and  his  presence  was  contam- 
inating, and  the  public  distrusted  any  of  its  servants 
who  seemed  to  be  friendly  with  him. 

One  of  the  most  sensational  stories  about  Mr. 
Gould's  career  is  told  by  a  prominent  politician  now 
in  Washington. 

"His  next  appearance  here  after  the  *  Black 
Friday  '  excitement,"  said  the  politician,  "was  when 
•he  tried  to  bribe  Congress  to  let  up  on  the  Union 
Pacific  railroad,  which  then  owed  the  government 
^1,000,000,000.  He  desired  the  passage  of  a  bill 
giving  favorable  terms  to  the  railroad  in  adjusting 


272    JAY  Gould's  relations  with  the  public. 

its  outstanding  liabilities  with  the  government. 
Huntington  was  here  with  Gould.  Money  was 
plentiful  as  water.  As  one  man  who  got  some  of  it 
said,  'All  that  was  necessary  to  do  was  to  stretch 
your  hand  and  take  it.'  Gould,  flushed  by  success 
with  his  own  creatures,  fancied  he  could  buy  a 
majority.  In  fact,  he  thought  he  could  buy  the 
entire  Congress  if  he  desired.  He  went  into  a 
prominent  senator's  room  on  Fourteenth  street  whom 
he  knew  slightly.  He  told  him  he  wanted  to  talk 
to  him  about  the  pending  bill.  *  Mr.  Gould,'  the 
senator  replied,  'if  you  want  to  see  me  about 
public  affairs,  you  will  have  to  call  on  me  at  the 
senate.' 

"  'But  I  don't  want  to  go  to  the  senate.  I  won't 
go  there.  I  want  your  assistance  and  I  desire  to 
make  it  worth  your  while  to  assist  me.' 

"  'Mr.  Gould,'  said  the  senator,  rising  and  point- 
ing to  the  door,  'oblige  me  by  leaving  my  rooms.' 

"  Gould,  dumbfounded,  went.  But  he  was  more 
successful  elsewhere.  He  needed  forty  votes.  I 
saw  a  list  on  the  day  the  debate  was  to  end.  It  con- 
tained the  names  of  forty-three  senators  who  were 
to  vote  for  the  bill.  I  called  old  Thurman  out.  I  told 
him  he  was  beaten.  He  asked  why.  'Because,'  I 
said,  'Gould  and  Huntington  have  forty-three  votes.' 
He  said  it  was  impossible  and  I  told  him  of  the  list 
I  had  seen.  He  wanted  the  list.  I  doubted  my 
ability  to  get  it.  'You  must  get  it,'  he  said.  I  was 
a  correspondent,  and  after  a  while  secured  the  list 
and  copied  it  for  my  paper.    Then  I  showed  it  to 


JAY  Gould's  relations  with  the  public.  273 


Thurman.  He  put  on  his  glasses,  took  a  pinch  of 
snuff,  read  the  list,  and  exclaiming,  'This  is  just  what 
I  want,'  rushed  into  the  senate. 

"When  Stanley  Matthews,  one  of  Gould's  crea- 
tures, who  was  speaking,  sat  down,  Senator  Thurman 
rose  to  close  the  debate.  I  was  in  the  press  gallery. 
Gould  and  Huntington  sat  in  the  senators'  special 
gallery  with  the  list  of  their  creatures  in  their  hands 
to  check  off  every  senator  as  he  voted  in  order  that 
they  might  know  who  were  faithful  to  their  bribes. 
They  smiled  pityingly  when  the  old  Roman  began. 
They  did  not  believe  in  integrity.  To  them  every 
man  had  his  price,  and. they  had  paid  the  price  of  a 
majority — Thurman's  speech  could  not  hurt  them. 
It  was  a  magnificent  speech.  Thurman  rang  all  the 
changes  and  his  honest  face,  his  earnest  voice,  im- 
posing presence  and  piercing  eyes  made  many  a 
public  bribe-taker  wince.  His  eloquence  was  won- 
derful, and  toward  the  last  the  smile  of  pity  on 
Gould's  face  gave  way  to  a  look  of  anxiety  and  that 
to  fear.  When  in  ending,  the  old  Roman,  rising  to 
his  fullest  height,  cried  out:  'It  has  been  charged 
that  mighty  millionaires  have  purchased  a  majority 
of  this  senate;  that  they  have  collars  around  the 
necks  of  forty-three.  There  are  circumstances  which 
suggest,  if  they  do  not  prove,  the  correctness  of 
that  charge.  Can  it  be  true?  A  list  has  been  pre- 
pared containing  the  names  of  the  forty-three.  Here 
it  is.' 

"He  took  it  from  his  pocket,  and  while  many  a 
face  blanched  he  read  it.    'And  now,'  he  concluded 


274    JAY  Gould's  relations  with  the  public. 

after  an  almost  breathless  silence,  'now  we  will  see 
if  the  charge  be  true.' 

"Well,  the  vote  was  taken.  Before  it  was  half 
over  I  knew  that  most  of  the  forty-three  had  taken 
to  the  woods.  Blaine,  Matthews  and  Hill,  of 
Georgia,  I  remember,  stood  their  ground  and  voted 
for  Gould;  but  when  the  clerk  footed  up  the  vote  it 
was  found  that  Gould  had,  instead  of  forty-three, 
only  fifteen  votes.  His  face  was  black  with  rage, 
and  so  was  Huntington's.  It  was  a  hard  day  for 
them,  but  it  was  a  glorious  one  for  Thurman,  and  to 
him  the  country  owes  a  debt  of  gratitude." 

No  man  in  the  country  had  a  wider  audience  than 
Gould.  Whatever  he  had  to  say  was  sure  of  publica- 
tion in  every  newspaper  in  the  land.  Journals  that 
continually  denounced  him  would  print  everything  he 
had  to  say  as  a  matter  of  news.  Gould  was  always 
an  interesting  figure.  The  public  never  tired  of  read- 
ing about  him,  his  operations,  his  yacht,  his  home, 
his  daily  life.  Every  word  he  uttered  was  eagerly 
reported  and  his  movements  were  watched  as  closely 
as  the  President's.  In  his  later  years  he  was  quite 
accessible  to  newspaper  men,  and  they  found  him 
not  averse  to  the  process  of  interviewing  if  he  had 
anything  to  say.  The  Tribune  and  Sun  were  his 
favorite  mediums  of  communication  with  the  public, 
because  they  seldom  attacked  and  often  defended 
Gould.  Indeed,  they  were  looked  upon  as  his  per- 
sonal organs  during  a  part  of  his  life.  But  Gould 
would  frequently  give  interviews  to  other  papers. 
He  recognized  the  fact  that  the  papers  which  opposed 


JAY  Gould's  relations  with  the  public.  275 


him  were  of  the  widest  circulation  and  influence,  and 
that  if  he  had  anything  to  say  it  was  time  to  give 
it  to  the  largest  circulation.  The  World  was  fore- 
most in  denouncing  his  operations,  but  he  was  often 
pleased  to  reach  the  public  through  its  columns, 
even  if  his  words  were  accompanied  with  severe 
editorial  criticism.  Mr.  Gould  was  a  good  talker; 
he  possessed  the  art  of  saying  little  or  much,  as  he 
pleased.  The  most  skillful  of  interviewers  could  not 
trap  him  into  saying  something  which  he  did  not 
wish  to  say.  When  he  got  through  he  would  stop, 
and  no  amount  of  ingenuity  could  induce  him  to 
continue.  Mr.  Gould  was  fond  of  testifying  to  the 
honesty  and  good  faith  of  newspaper  men.  When 
he  knew  his  man  he  said  he  could  trust  him  not  to 
betray  him.  But  Gould  almost  invariably  insisted 
on  seeing  the  proof-sheets  of  the  interview  before 
publication. 

From  1880  to  1883  Mr.  Gould  owned  the  World. 
We  have  his  own  word  (in  an  interview  in  the  World 
in  June,  1883)  that  he  purchased  the  control  of  the 
paper  from  Col.  Tom  Scott,  the  famous  Pennsyl- 
vania railroad  king,  as  a  part  of  a  negotiation  which 
included  also  the  purchase  of  the  Texas  Pacific  rail- 
road. Mr.  Gould  said  that  Col.  Scott  appealed  to 
him  at  Berne,  Switzerland,  in  1879,  to  take  the  road 
and  the  paper  off  his  hands.  William  Henry  Hurl- 
bert,  who  was  editor  of  the  World  under  Gould,  gave 
a  different  version  of  the  transaction,  claiming  that 
the  purchase  from  Col.  Scott  was  the  result  of  a  ne- 
gotiation opened  by  Mr.  Hurlbert  with  Mr.  Gould, 

18 


276    JAY  Gould's  relations  with  the  public. 


The  World  did  not  thrive  under  the  ownership  of 
Gould.  It  did  not  possess  public  confidence.  The 
paper  was  used  as  an  instrument  in  Gould's  Wall 
street  operations.  Brilliant  editorials  could  not  re- 
deem it  from  the  withering  influence  of  Gould's  name. 
Its  circulation  had  shrunk  to  15,000  when  Mr.  Joseph 
Pulitzer  purchased  it  in  May,  1883. 

After  church,  charities,  politics  and  the  pi  ess, 
the  relations  of  Mr.  Gould  with  his  employes  are  in- 
teresting to  notice. 

Mr.  Gould  was  not  a  believer  in  cheap  men.  In 
the  employment  of  help  he  regarded  economy  as 
poor  policy.  In  the  various  branches  of  his  ex- 
tended business  he  aimed  to  secure  the  best  men 
possible,  and  he  was  never  known  to  dicker  over  the 
amount  of  pay.  His  conspicuous  success  in  avoid- 
ing the  legal  shoals  through  which  he  was  obliged 
to  thread  his  way  during  his  eventful  career  was  due 
mainly  to  the  fact  that  he  always  had  in  his  employ 
the  very  best  legal  talent  that  money  could  procure. 

The  story  about  Mr.  Sage  and  his  office  boy  has 
been  frequently  told  in  Wall  street,  but  it  has  never 
appeared  in  print.  Mr.  Sage  had  an  office  boy  who 
had  been  with  him  for  several  years,  was  familiar 
with  his  methods  and  moods,  and  understood  per- 
fectly well  the  status  of  each  of  Mr.  Sage's  custom- 
ers. The  boy  was  alert,  tactful  and  faithful,  and  in 
due  course  of  time  received  tempting  offers  to  leave 
Mr.  Sage's  employ.  He,  however,  stuck  to  Mr. 
Sage  for  a  long  whil6,  imbued  with  the  false  hope  of 
advancement. 


JAY  Gould's  relations  with  the  public.  277 


The  boy's  salary  was  ;^I5  a  week,  and  when  he 
told  Mr.  Sage  one  day  that  he  had  been  offered  $25 
a  week  to  go  elsewhere,  Mr.  Sage  coldly  told  him 
that  he  had  better  go,  and  he  went.  Jay  Gould 
happened  in  Mr.  Sage's  office  a  few  days  afterward 
and  casually  remarked:  "Why,  where  is  John?" 

"Oh!  he  has  left  me,"  said  Mr.  Sage.  "He  got 
extravagant  notions  in  his  head  and  I  had  to  let  him 
go.  But  I've  got  a  new  boy  and  I  save  $3  a  week  on 
his  salary." 

"You  do,  eh?"  remarked  Mr.  Gould,  with  undis- 
guised disgust.  "Well,  have  you  figured  how  much 
you  will  lose  on  his  blunders?" 

When  Col.  F.  K.  Hain  was  made  general  man- 
ager of  the  elevated  railroads  in  this  city,  he  was 
unknown  to  Mr.  Gould.  It  was  not  long,  however, 
before  the  quiet  little  millionaire  began  to  take  a 
lively  interest  in  him.  Col.  Hain  possesses  qualities 
which  excited  admiration  in  Mr.  Gould's  breast. 
One  day,  not  many  years  ago,  Mr.  Gould,  as  presi- 
dent of  the  Manhattan  Railway  Company,  received 
Col.  Hain's  written  resignation.  In  great  surprise 
he  sent  for  Mr.  Hain  and  asked  him  to  explain  the 
reason  for  his  resignation. 

"Mr.  Gould,"  said  the  colonel,  "I  have  received 
from  the  Reading  Railroad  Company  an  offer  of  the 
position  of  general  manager  at  a  salary  of  $12,000 
a  year,  and  in  justice  to  myself  and  my  family  I  do 
not  think  that  I  ought  to  refuse  it." 

"How  much  are  you  getting  here?"  asked  Mr. 
Gould. 


27B    JAY  Gould's  relations  with  the  public. 


"Six  thousand  five  hundred  dollars  a  year,"  re- 
plied Col.  Hain. 

"Is  the  increase  in  salary  your  only  reason  for 
your  resignation?" 

"Yes,  sir." 

"Will  you  stay  with  us  for  $15,000  a  year?"  asked 
Mr.  Gould. 

"Certainly,"  responded  Col.  Hain. 

"Very  well,  let  it  be  so,"  said  Mr.  Gould.  "And, 
Colonel,  I  am  perfectly  satisfied  with  your  work. 
Never  let  a  question  of  money  come  between  us." 

The  loyalty  of  S.  S.  H.  Clark,  general  manager 
of  the  Missouri  Pacific  and  president  of  the  Union 
Pacific,  to  Mr.  Gould  has  been  the  subject  of  frequent 
comment.  Mr.  Clark  is  by  no  means  a  low-priced 
man,  and  the  fact  that  he  has  long  been  one  of  Mr. 
Gould's  trusted  lieutenants  means  that  he  has  not 
worked  for  low  pay. 

It  is  related  that  the  Atchison  people  once  tried 
to  get  Mr.  Clark  to  enter  their  employ  by  offering 
him  an  advance  of  $10,000  on  the  salary  the  Missouri 
Pacific  company  was  giving  him.  Mr.  Clark 
promptly  refused  the  offer  and  said  nothing.  Mr. 
Gould,  however,  heard  of  the  matter  from  other 
sources,  and  on  the  Christmas  day  following  Mr. 
Clark  received  a  check  for  $50,000  with  a  short  note 
which  read:  "A  merry  Christmas  to  my  loyal  friend. 
— Jay  Gould." 

"During  the  big  strike  troubles  in  the  Missouri 
Pacific,"  said  one  broker,  "one  of  the  employes  who 
stood  by  the  company  was  shot  and  killed,    I  en- 


)AY  Gould's  relations  with  the  public.  279 

tered  Mr.  Gould's  office  a  few  days  later  and  found 
him  making  out  a  check.  As  I  approached  the  desk 
I  saw  that  the  check  was  for  $5,000,  drawn  to  the 
order  of  the  widow  of  the  murdered  man.  Mr. 
Gould  quickly  turned  the  paper  face  downward. 

**-*You  are  too  late,  Mr.  Gould,'  I  said.  'I  unin- 
tentionally read  the  check.' 

"He  smiled  a  little  as  he  quietly  remarked,  'We 
must  look  out  for  those  who  stand  by  us." 


CHAPTER  XX. 


A  CHAPTER  OF  ANECDOTES. 

HILE  it  is  true  that  Gould  lOved  to  envelope 


V  Y  his  transactions  in  mystery,  and  was  a  master 
of  the  art  of  keeping  silence,  and  though  during 
most  of  his  life  he  was  engaged  in  financial  intrigues 
and  occult  speculations,  yet  the  main  facts  of  his 
life  can  be  found  in  the  official  records  of  law  cases 
and  the  numerous  legislative  and  congressional 
investigations  that  were  held  on  many  of  his  trans- 
actions. The  facts  of  this  volume  are  not  to  be 
understood  as  doing  Mr.  Gould  an  injustice,  for 
almost  the  worst  things  that  are  said  about  him  are 
the  ones  to  which  he  himself  testified  under  oath. 

The  greatest  financial  transaction  ever  consum- 
mated in  America  is  believed  by  many  people  to 
have  been  the  creation  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railway 
Company  by  Jay  Gould.  By  a  stroke  of  financial 
genius  at  once  bold  and  adroit,  he  consolidated  into 
that  corporation  other  great  railroad  companies, 
assuming  control  of  all.  It  will  be  remembered  that 
the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  Company  and  the  Union 
Pacific  Railway  Company  are  two  distinct  corpora- 
tions.   The  former  was  the  original  company. 

It  was  in  1873  that  Gould  went  into  Union 
Pacific.    He  bought  about  $10,000,000  of  the  stock. 


280 


A  CHAPTER  OF  ANECDOTES. 


had  it  bound  into  a  book  and  put  it  in  a  safe,  as  he 
told  a  friend  at  the  time,  "for  his  wife  and  family  as 
an  investment."  In  1878  Gould  conceived  the  idea 
of  a  grand  coup,  and  this  was  carried  out  so  success- 
fully that  in  sixty  days  he  had  made  terms'which 
netted  him  about  $21,000,000  in  profits. 

He  first  ran  over  to  Amsterdam  from  London, 
arriving  there  late  in  the  morning.  At  10  a.  m.  that 
day  he  notified  the  Dutch  bondholders  of  the  Denver 
Pacific  that  he  would  be  pleased  to  meet  them  at  1 1 
o'clock.  Promptly  at  that  hour  he  met  them,  and 
at  12  he  left  Amsterdam  with  his  gripsack  full  of  the 
securities  of  the  Dutch  bondholders.  By  this  means 
he  captured  control  of  the  Denver  Pacific.  Inside 
of  ten  hours  he  bought  out  Commodore  Garrison's 
interest  in  the  Missouri  Pacific.  He  bought  out 
ex-Governor  Ames'  interest  in  the  Central  Branch 
of  the  Union  Pacific,  and  he  had  previously  formed 
a  pool  by  which  he  acquired  control  of  the  Kansas 
Pacific. 

One  day  the  Union  Pacific  directors  awoke  to 
the  alarming  discovery  that  Mr.  Gould  had  dropped 
out  of  their  organization  and  was  surveying  a  line 
from  Denver  to  Salt  Lake  City.  The  Kansas  Pacific 
was  utterly  worthless,  the  Central  Branch  had  not 
^earned  any  money  for  years,  the  Denver  Pacific  had 
been  in  very  bad  shape;  but  when  the  Union  Pacific 
directors  discovered  the  extent  of  Mr.  Gould's  com- 
binations they  lost  no  time  in  boarding  a  special  car 
in  Boston  and  rushing  over  to  New  York  to  see  him 
about  it.    They  went  up  to  Mr.  Gould's  house  and 


282 


A  CHAPTER  OF  ANECDOTES. 


were  there  gathered  in  by  him  on  the  consolidation 
of  the  three  roads,  all  of  their  stock  being  exchanged 
at  par  and  merged  into  the  new  Union  Pacific  Rail- 
way Company  as  distinguished  from  the  Union  Pa- 
cific Railroad  Company. 

This  incident  formed  one  of  the  subjects  of 
inquiry  committed  to  the  Pacific  Railroad  Commis- 
sion in  1887.  The  members  of  the  commission 
appointed  by  President  Cleveland  consisted  of  Gov. 
Pattison,  of  Pennsylvania;  E.  Ellery  Anderson  of 
this  city,  and  David  Littler,  of  Illinois. 

The  Union  Pacific  railroad  and  the  Kansas  Pacific 
railroad  companies  had  received  government  subsi- 
dies in  bonds  and  lands.  The  bonds  were  received 
upon  the  stipulation  that  the  companies  would 
pay  at  par  and  accumulated  interest  upon  their 
maturity.  The  first  of  these  bonds  will  mature  in 
1895.  application  had  been  made  by  the  Pacific 
railroads  to  Congress  to  extend  the  time  of  pay- 
ment, and  this  commission  was  appointed  to  report 
upon  that  matter  and  incidentally  to  furnish  Con- 
gress with  information  relative  to  these  deals  which 
had  affected  the  status  of  the  corporations. 

The  commission  began  its  sittings  in  this  city,  at 
No.  10  Wall  street.  A  large  number  of  railway  mag- 
nates intimately  connected  with  the  Pacific  railroads 
were  first  examined,  including  Russell  Sage  and 
Sidney  Dillon.  They  were  examined  particularly 
with  a  view  to  finding  out  exactly  what  had  taken 
place  when  the  Union  Pacific  railway  was  created. 
They  seemed  to  know  nothing  about  the  matter. 


A  CHAPTER  OF  ANECDOTES.  2^3 

At  every  point  the  well-directed  questions  of  the 
inquirers  were  adroitly  turned  aside.  The  witnesses 
did  not  know  or  could  not  remember.  No  light  had 
yet  been  thrown  upon  the  subject  under  examina- 
tion. But  the  great  witness  of  all  was  reserved  for 
the  last.  This  was  Jay  Gould.  He  knew  it  all,  but 
the  great  question  was,  "Would  he  tell?"  Nobody 
believed  that  he  would  tell  voluntarily  the  facts 
relating  to  his  connection  with  the  government 
interest  in  the  matter,  but  it  was  believed  that  a 
severe  and  searching  cross-examination  would  com- 
pel him  to  divulge  some  of  the  facts. 

An  immense  amount  of  labor  was  gone  through 
with  in  anticipation  of  the  time  when  Jay  Gould 
should  take  his  seat  in  the  witness  chair.  Men  on 
the  inside  and  familiar  with  the  lines  along  which 
the  inquiry  should  be  directed  devoted  weeks  to  the 
study  of  figures  and  the  procurement  of  papers  upon 
which  to  base  the  questions  which  should  be  asked 
of  Mr.  Gould.  Dozens  of  questions  on  the  same 
subject  were  prepared.  If  he  answered  one  question 
one  way  he  was  to  be  asked  a  certain  question,  and 
if  he  answered  another  way  he  was  to  be  asked 
another  question.  In  thic  way  it  was  believed  when 
Mr.  Gould  took  his  seat  that  the  beginning  of  a  long 
struggle  was  at  hand. 

That  was  on  May  17,  1887.  Mr.  Gould  wore  a 
plain  pepper  and  salt  suit  and  a  shabby  silk  hat. 
The  examiners,  all  ready  to  level  their  batteries  of 
questions  at  him,  were  dumbfounded  when  the  first 
questions  were  asked  and  Mr.  Gould  blandly  stated 


284 


A  CHAPTER  OF  ANECDOTES. 


his  willingness  and  desire  to  afford  all  the  informa- 
tion in  his  power.  He  seemed  anxious  to  withhold 
no  facts,  to  evade  no  questions,  and  to  help  the  mem- 
bers of  the  commission  in  their  work. 

There  being  some  uncertainty  as  to  the  exact 
route  of  some  of  the  roads  in  questicJn,  Mr.  Gould 
even  took  out  of  his  pocket  a  little  map  and  kindly 
enlightened  the  members  of  the  commission  as  to 
the  various  localities,  and  said:  "I  had  anticipated 
that  possibly  you  might  want  to  know  what  had  been 
my  holdings  of  various  securities  relating  to  this 
transaction, 'and  so  I  instructed  my  bookkeeper  to 
draw  off  a  statement,  which  I  now  submit  to  you." 
He  then  produced  a  little  memorandum  covering 
about  sixteen  lines  of  writing,  which  covered  all  the 
facts  and  gave  the  cue  to  every  feature  of  the  trans- 
action. Mr.  Gould  said  he  had  kept  books  of  all  his 
transactions. 

Q.    Where  are  the  books?    A.  I  have  them. 

Q.    Where?  A.  In  my  possession. 

Q.  Are  they  at  the  service  of  the  commission? 
A.  If  they  desire  them,  with  the  greatest  of  pleasure. 

This  willingness  to  show  the  books  created  a  pro- 
found sensation.  Railway  magnates  worth  many  mill- 
ions and  controlling  thousands  of  miles  of  road  had 
one  after  another  followed  each  other  to  the  stand 
only  to  show  that  Gould  was  the  one  who  pulled  the 
strings,  that  they  did  not  know  what  his  intentions 
were  in  regard  to  the  commission,  and  that  he  made 
up  his  mind  upon  a  certain  line  of  policy  without 
consulting  them.    Many  of  these  magnates  were  in 


A  CHAPTER  OF  ANECDOTES. 


2S5 


the  room  and  they  sat  with  open  mouths  and  plainly 
evinced  their  astonishment  when  they  saw  Mr. 
Gould  giving  up  the  hitherto  carefully  guarded  facts. 
Nothing  more  plainly  showed  the  absolute  mastery 
of  Jay  Gould  over  all  the  other  railway  magnates  of 
the  country. 

Mr.  Gould  had  several  "doubles"  who  were  con- 
stantly being  mistaken  for  him. 

Broker  Sam  Leopold,  of  No.  84  Broadway,  for 
several  years  was  known  as  Gould's  double,  but 
about  a  year  ago  he  got  tired  of  the  distinction  and 
had  his  beard  cut  to  a  point.  During  the  campaign 
of  1884  he  was  offered  $20,000  to  impersonate  Mr. 
Gould.  Conspiring  brokers  proposed  that  he  smear 
blood  on  his  face  and  roll  on  the  sidewalk  near  the 
corner  of  Broad  and  Wall  streets.  Confederates 
were  to  be  on  hand  to  keep  the  crowd  back  till  an 
'ambulance  arrived,  and  to  say  at  intervals:  "That's 
Jay  Gould;  he's  fatally  injured." 

Further  details  of  the  plan  were  to  have  a  car- 
riage near  Chambers  street  hospital  for  the  purpose 
of  taking  "Mr.  Gould"  to  his  house.  Of  course  Leo- 
pold's remarkably  close  resemblance  to  Gould  would 
be  sufficient  to  make  the  scheme  work  well,  espe- 
cially as  a  man  was  to  have  been  posted  at  Irvington 
to  telegraph  that  the  millionaire  was  in  his  country 
home.  Then  the  telegraph  wires  were  to  be 
"grounded"  for  a  few  hours.  The  tremendous  ex- 
citement would  naturally  depress  the  Gould  stocks, 
and,  in  sympathy,  about  everything  would  go  down 
with  a  rush.    The  schemers  were  to  take  advantage 


2^6 


A  CHAPTER  OF  ANECDOTE^. 


of  this  by  selling  short,  and  they  expected  to  have 
at  least  from  lo  to  2  o'clock  in  which  to  work  this 
peculiarly  daring  manipulation  of  the  market. 

By  the  time  the  truth  would  be  known  the  bold 
plotters  would  turn  and  go  long  of  the  market,  on 
the  recovery  from  the  temporary  shock,  and  at  least 
two  or  three  good-sized  fortunes  were  expected  to 
be  realized  by  the  double  deal.  Sam  reluctantly 
declined  the  tempting  offer.  Although  he  wanted 
the  $20,000  awfully  bad,  he  feared  that  he  might  be 
mobbed  after  the  fright  was  over,  and  so  the  scheme 
fell  through. 

Leopold  knew  Gould  very  well*,  and  they  de- 
lighted to  meet  and  look  at  each  other.  It  is  related 
that  whenever  Sam  discovered  a  new  gray  hair  in 
his  whiskers  he  would  hurry  to  Mr.  Gould,  only  to 
find  that  the  millionaire  was  also  keeping  tab  on  his 
white  hairs,  and  the  two  accounts  tallied  exactly. 

Some  years  ago  Mr.  Gould  went  to  the  Rocky 
mountains,  where  he  wanted  some  surveying  done 
in  the  neighborhood  of  Black  Hawk  in  Colorado. 
He  employed  a  surveyor  and  described  the  work  he 
wanted  done.  The  Indians  were  rather  troublesome 
at  that  time  and  the  surveyor  said: 

"  I  will  have  a  good  chance  of  getting  scalped." 

"Well,"  replied  Mr.  Gould,  "I  want  this  work 
done,  and  I  want  to  know  if  you  will  do  it." 

"It  will  be  a  bad  thing  for  my  family  if  I  am 
killed,"  said  the  man,  "but  I'll  undertake  the  work." 

"  How  much  money  would  it  take  to  make  you 
independent  out  here?"  asked  Mr.  Gould. 


A  CHAPTER  OF  ANECDOTES. 


287 


"  I'd  be  well  off  if  I  had  $5,000,"  replied  the  sur- 
veyor. 

The  surveying  was  done,  and  one  day,  some 
months  later,  Mr.  Gould  asked  Mr.  Morosini  what 
the  surveyor's  name  was  and  directed  him  to  send  the 
man  a  check  for  $5,000,  with  the  remark: 

"WeT  make  him  the  richest  man  in  Colorado." 

One  of  the  stories  told  of  Mr.  Gould  to  illustrate 
his  determination  to  die  a  rich  man  whatever  hap- 
pened was  this:  In  1884,  when  it  was  ascertained  that 
Mr.  Gould  was  in  financial  danger,  he  took  from 
his  safe  $11,000,000  worth  of  stock  of  the  Manhattan 
and  the  Missouri  Pacific  railroads  and  stowed  it  away 
in  an  iron  box,  which  he  locked  and  sealed. 

He  resolved  that  that  box  should  never  be 
opened  until  after  his  death,  and  that  no  matter 
what  happened  the  securities  should  not  be 
touched.  He  carried  the  box,  it  was  said,  to  the 
vaults  of  a  safe  deposit  company,  where  it  was 
locked  up,  and  the  particular  vault  in  which  it  was 
placed  was  sealed,  too.  Instructions  were  given  to 
the  officers  of  the  company  that  the  seal  on  the 
vault  was  not  t©  be  broken  until  after  his  death,  and 
then  only  in  the  presence  of  all  of  his  executors. 

Ex-Judge  John  F.  Dillon  knew  Mr.  Gould  inti- 
mately. He  first  met  the  financier  in  1879,  and  was 
his  legal  adviser  in  many  of  his  undertakings. 

"There  were  many  distinct  characteristics  about 
Mr.  Gould,"  said  Mr.  Dillon.  "I  never  knew  him  to 
utter  a  profane  word,  and  he  was  as  delicate  and 
sensitive  in  temperament  as  a  woman.    Mr.  Gould 


288 


A  CHAPTER  OF  ANECDOTES. 


wrote  and  spoke  capital  English,  but  he  never  wrote 
a  word  that  was  not  necessary.  Judge  Usher,  who 
was  Secretary  of  the  Interior  under  Lincoln,  an  able 
and  great  lawyer,  once  said  to  me  that  he  had 
bought  a  railroad  for  Mr.  Gould,  or  in  his  interest, 
and  had  written  out  a  contract  covering  two  or  three 
pages  of  foolscap.  The  judge,  in  telling  of  the 
incident,  said:  *I  sent  the  contract,  which  I  con- 
sidered a  thorough  document,  to  Mr.  Gould,  and  he 
almost  immediately  returned  it  written  out  on  a  half 
page  of  paper  of  the  same  size.  When  I  got  the 
document  and  found  it  perfect  in  its  condensed 
form,  I  felt  ashamed  of  myself.'  Mr.  Gould  was  so 
self-reliant  that  he  had  little  use  for  lawyers.  He 
was  his  own  negotiator  and  contract  maker.  When 
he  bought  the  Iron  Mountain  road  he  showed  me, 
the  next  day,  a  contract  for  that  great  purchase.  It 
was  a  contract  written  out  in  his  own  handwriting 
on  less  than  two  pages  of  social  note  paper. 

"He  concluded  the  contract  of  the  purchase  of 
the  Missouri  Pacific  without  consulting  his  lawyers. 
When  shown  the  contract  the  next  day,  his  counsel 
told  him  he  had  bought  a  big  lawsuit,  and  that  title 
to  the  whole  property  was  in  question  in  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States.  He  simply  said,  'I  have 
given  my  check  for  $3,700,000,  and  the  thing  is 
closed.  The  seller  would  laugh  at  me  if  I  went  back 
and  expressed  a  desire  to  rescind.'  He  thereupon 
directed  his  attorneys  to  take  charge  of  the  case  and 
try  to  sustain  the  title  of  the  property  bought,  which 
after  years  of  litigation  they  did. 


A  CHAPTER  OF  ANECDOTES. 


289 


"But  great  as  Mr.  Gpuld  was  as  a  financier  and 
railway  manager,  he  would,  if  bred  to  the  bar,  have 
made  a  greater  lawyer.  That  is  a  fact.  I  have  seen 
him  greatly  provoked,  but  never  saw  him  lose  his 
temper  or  utter  a  threat.  Nevertheless,  he  had  a 
good  memory,  both  for  benefits  received  and  in- 
juries done.  He  was  probably,  in  the  language  of 
Dr.  Johnson,  *a  good  hater  without  loquacity  and 
pomposity.'  " 

A  popular  error  about  Jay  Gould  is  the  notion 
that  he  was  invincible.  In  1866  a  promissory  note 
for  ^500  with  his  name  went  a-begging  round  Wall 
street  at  a  heavy  discount,  yet  he  left  a  fortune  esti- 
mated at  $100,000,000.  If  Gould  had  died  poor, 
what  would  have  been  the  general  verdict  on  his 
career?  And  yet,  only  eight  years  ago  he  was  on 
the  verge  of  failure.  This  was  after  the  panic  of 
May,  1884,  one  of  the  few  times  that  he  was  tempted 
into  the  stock  market  as  a  speculator  in  order  to 
hold  up  the  price  of  stocks  with  which  he  was 
burdened. 

The  late  Charles  F.  Woerishoffer,  Henry  N. 
Smith,  and  other  operators  were  united  in  a  combined 
effort  to  bear  the  securities  which  Gould  w^as  carry- 
ing. He  had  supported  them  for  a  time  by  obtain- 
ing sterling  bills,  giving  his  securites  as  collateral 
and  then  converting  the  bills  into  cash.  But  ster- 
ling loans,  like  all  others,  come  to  maturity;  the 
bears  were  as  unscrupulous  as  himself,  bold  and 
skillful  and  persistent.  Gould's  Western  Union  fell 
to  49  and  his  Missouri  Pacific  to  62,    He  was  beaten. 


290 


A  CHAPTER  OF  ANECDOTES. 


One  morning  he  had  his  lawyers  execute  an  assign- 
ment of  his  property,  and  on  the  following  day — a 
beautiful  Sunday  morning — his  yacht  went  down  to 
Long  Branch,  where  the  bear  operators  were  sum- 
mering. Gould's  emissaries  landed  and  held  a  con- 
ference with  his  foes.  They  bore  his  ultimatum — a 
copy  of  the  assignment  and  the  statement  that  un- 
less the  bears  made  terms  with  him  he  would  on 
the  following  morning  file  the  assignment  and  give 
public  notice  that  he  was  unable  to  meet  his  en- 
gagements. 

At  that  time  he  was  supposed  to  be  borrowing 
some  $20,000,000,  and  his  failure  would  create  a 
bigger  panic  than  the  one  the  street  had  just  passed 
through.  Many  of  the  firms  with  which  the  bear 
combine  had  "short"  contracts  outstanding  would 
doubtless  fail,  and  in  the  general  crash  the  successful 
bears  themselves  might  be  heavy  losers.  After  a  pro- 
tracted conference  the  bears  agreed  to  "let  up"  on 
Gould  on  condition  that  he  should  turn  over  to  them 
50,000  shares  of  Western  Union  at  the  current 
market  price,  $50  per  share.  This  enabled  them  to 
make  delivery  of  the  shares  they  had  sold  at  high 
prices.  In  speaking  of  this  "deal"  the  following 
day,  one  of  the  bears  expressed  his  confidence  that 
Gould  would  have  to  fail  anyhow — the  help  he  re- 
ceived would  be  transient  in  its  effect  as  a  glass  of 
brandy  given  to  a  dying  man. 

He  was  wrong.  He  underestimated  the  fertility 
of  resource  in  Gould  and  his  associates. 

Many  of  the  men  in  the  financial  quarter  of  New 


A  CHAPTER  OF  ANECDOTES. 


291 


York  City  the  day  of  his  death  devoted  their  time  to 
forming  estimates  of  Mr.  Gould's  character  as  a  man 
and  relating  anecdotes  of  his  life.  In  reference  to 
the  general  subject  under  discussion,  Col.  Henry  T. 
Chapman,  the  art  connoisseur  of  the  Stock  Exchange, 
said: 

"Gould's  art  collection  was  little  known,  for  he 
rarely  ever  figured  personally  in  buying  pictures, 
and  went  so  little  into  social  life  that  the  public  had 
no  knowledge  of  his  gallery.  It  is  very  choice, 
however,  consisting  of  about  one  hundred  paint- 
ings. Many  of  them  are  representative  works  of 
the  Barbizon  and  modern  French  school.  He  has 
one  of  the  finest  examples  of  Corot  in  the  country, 
and  masterpieces  by  Rousseau,  De  Neufville  and 
others. 

"I  purchased  for  him  at  the  Stewart  sale  the 
finest  example  of  Knaus  in  the  country.  It  is  a 
famous  work  known  as  'Knaus  Children,'  and  cost 
;^25,000.  Works  by  that  artist  have  brought  higher 
prices  in  this  country,  but  no  one  has  a  finer  exam- 
ple. This  illustrates  one  thing  that  I  would  like  to 
say  about  Mr.  Gould.  He  did  not  buy  a  painting  on 
account  of  its  price,  but  because  he  appreciated  its 
beauties.  He  had  a  fine,  a  highly  cultivated  artistic 
sense,  and  showed  a  wonderful  appreciation  of  color, 
tone  and  treatment  in  a  picture. 

*'He  knew  the  inspirational  works  of  an  artist 
from  the  mediocre  productions,  and  showed  a  nice 
discrimination  in  his  selections.  He  never  bought 
a  picture  for  a  household  decoration  nor  to  fit  a 

19 


292 


A  CHAPTER  OF  ANECDOTES. 


recess  in  the  wall,  but  for  the  love  of  the  art  it  dis- 
played and  the  enjoyment  it  gave  him.  His  was  the 
true  artistic  spirit." 

"The  quality  for  which  I  most  greatly  respected 
Mr.  Gould,"  said  an  acquaintance,  "was  his  consid- 
eration for  others.  This  may  seem  a  strange  qual- 
ity to  attribute  to  a  man  who  is  esteemed  a  'wrecker' 
by  nine-tenths  of  Wall  street  men,  but  it  was  the 
thing  that  I  often  remarked  in  a  long  personal 
acquaintance  with  the  man, 

*Tt  was  once  my  pleasure  to  accompany  him  and 
some  members  of  his  family  to  Florida.  His  son 
George  and  a  young  companion  were  of  the  party. 
When  we  arrived  at  Palatka,  Fla.,  Mr.  Gould  found 
that  a  suite  of  apartments  had  been  reserved  in 
Orvis'  hotel  for  each  member  of  the  party. 

"This  was  not  unusual  on  the  trip,  but  it  hap- 
pened that  at  Palatka  there  were  many  tourists 
arriving  by  the  same  train  who  were  unable  to  obtain 
accommodations  in  consequence  of  the  allotment  of 
rooms  to  the  Gould  party.  Mr.  Gould  took  in  the 
situation  at  once.  'See  here,'  said  he  to  the  propri- 
etor, 'why  do  you  give  me  all  these  rooms?  Others 
need  accommodation  as  well  as  I.'    'But,'  said  the 

man,  'I  '    'That's  all  right,'  replied  Mr.  Gould, 

'I  know  all  about  that.  These  people  need  rooms 
and  should  have  them,  and  if  there  are  not  enough 
here  for  the  ladies  just  send  those  boys  of  mine  over 
to  the  barn.' 

"George  Gould  and  his  companion,"  said  the 


A  CHAPTER  OF  ANECDOTES. 


man  in  conclusion,  "slept  that  night  in  an  outbuild- 
ing, scarcely  a  barn,  but  little  better." 

"Mr.  Gould,"  said  President  Norvin  Green,  ot 
the  Western  Union  Telegraph  Company,  "was  a  man 
who,  while  he  governed  a  corporation  carefully,  was 
always  ready  to  reward  merit  and  the  faithful  per- 
formance of  duty.  I  remember  at  one  of  our  annual 
meetings  one  of  our  department  men,  in  making  his 
report,  appended  thereto  a  request  that  his  salary 
be  raised.  He  asked  for  a  large  increase — fifty  per 
cent.  I  think,  from  $2,400  to  $3,600  a  year.  The 
Committee  on  Expenses  was  not  inclined  to  grant 
the  request.  They  were  willing  to  give  him  a  slight 
increase,  but  nothing  like  he  asked. 

"There  was  something  peculiar  about  his  work 
— I  don't  recollect  what  now — but  it  led  to  a  some- 
what long  debate.  This  was  terminated  by  Mr. 
Sage,  who  said  as  he  always  did  when  in  doubt: 
'Well,  we  will  leave  the  matter  to  Mr.  Gould.'  When 
Mr.  Gould  came  in  the  matter  was  referred  to  him 
with  the  explanation  of  the  debate  and  the  points 
of  difference.  Mr.  Gould  took  up  the  report  and 
read  it  through.  Then  he  read  the  request  for  an 
increase.  When  he  had  finished  he  turned  and  said: 
'Gentlemen,  is  there  any  of  you  who  would  like  to 
do  the  work  that  man  has  done  for  $2,400  a  year?' 

"Every  man  shook  his  head.  'Neither  would  I,' 
remarked  Mr.  Gould.  'If  he  can  do  all  this  work 
he  is  certainly  entitled  to  this  $3,600  he  asks,  and  we 
get  off  cheaply  at  that  in  having  a  faithful,  honest 
and  most  capable  employe.'  " 


294 


A  CHAPTER  OF  ANECDOTES. 


Among  other  stories  told  of  Mr.  Gould  are  the 
following: 

Some  years  ago  he  was  tendered  the  nomination 
of  Rex,  the  king  of  the  Mardi  Gras  carnival  in  New 
Orleans.  He  declined  this,  of  course,  and  when 
asked  jokingly  by  a  friend  why  he  had  put  ambition 
away,  remarked  dryly: 

"Well,  I  don't  think  the  nomination  was  entirely 
disinterested  or  that  I  would  have  reigned  supreme. 
I  have  always  heard  that  there  was  *a  power  behind 
the  throne,'  and  in  this  case  I  am  sure  of  it." 

With  this  he  thrust  his  hand  into  his  pocket  and 
drew  forth  the  letter  notifying  him  of  his  selection 
to  the  high  office.  Enclosed  in  it  was  a  bill  for 
$1,000,  the  price  of  the  honor.  The  functions  of  Rex 
that  year  were  performed  by  a  St.  Louis  brewer. 

Mr.  Gould  could  never  accustom  himself  to  take 
with  equanimity  the  criticism  and  abuse  that  were 
heaped  upon  his  head.  He  was  exceedingly  sensi- 
tive of  ridicule  and  loathed  the  term  "Little  Wizard," 
by  which  he  was  not  infrequently  designated  by  the 
Wall  street  men  and  the  papers.  He  often  heard 
himself  most  grossly  abused.  Once,  it  is  related, 
during  a  particularly  vexatious  series  of  delays  to  a 
crowded  elevated  railroad  train  in  which  Mr.  Gould 
happened  to  be,  a  tall,  muscular  individual  broke 
out  into  a  torrent. 

"It's  ridiculous,"  he  shouted.  "The  accommoda- 
tions on  this  road.  Absurd!  Scandalous!  That 
man  Gould  won't  put  on  an  extra  car.  Valuable 
franchise  for  a  song,  but  an  extra  train  means  a  dol- 


A  CHAPTER  OF  ANECDOTES. 


lar  less  or  so  in  profits.  It's  a  shame,  and  I'd  like 
to  have  that  little  rat  Gould  here  to  tell  him  and 
then  pull  his  nose." 

Mr.  Gould  stood  by  the  blusterer's  side  almost 
crushed  in  the  crowd.  He  said  nothing,  however, 
and  the  man  continued  his  outburst  until  he  reached 
a  station,  where  he  left  the  car,  after  pronouncing  a 
final  malediction  upon  Gould's  head. 

"Well,  well,"  said  Mr.  Gould,  turning  to  an 
acquaintance,  "that  was  hot,  wasn't  it?  I  was  very 
much  annoyed  at  the  delays  and  crowds  myself  and 
I  did  want  to  tell  the  man  that  I  was  not  respon- 
sible for  the  limited  number  of  trains.  If  he  had 
not  been  so  abusive,  I  would  have  told  him  that  it 
was  all  Sage's  doings.  He  advised  taking  the  extras 
off  and  I  suffer  for  it.  I  do  wish  Sage  could  have 
been  here,  for  I  think  I  would  have  told  that  fellow 
all  about  it  and  let  Sage  get  his  deserts." 

An  illustration  of  the  rush  and  hurry  of  Jay 
Gould's  life  is  told  among  the  Pennsylvania  moun- 
taineers in  the  region  round  about  Gouldsboro. 

Mr.  Gould's  father  was  superintendent  of  the 
tannery  at  Canadensis,  which  was  the  property  of 
his  son,  and  received  therefor  the  salary  of  $20  per 
week,  which  in  those  parts  placed  him  high  up  in 
the  category  of  the  well  to  do.  Canadensis  is  four 
and  a  half  miles  from  the  railroad  station  at  Cresco 
on  the  Delaware,  Lackawanna  and  Western  rail- 
road, and  the  road  between  is  a  rough  mountain 
road  not  fitted  for  fast  speeding. 

When  the  old  man  died  Jay  Gould  was  summoned 


296 


A  CHAPTER  OF  ANECDOTES. 


by  telegraph.  He  reached  Cresco  in  a  great  hurry. 
Business  matters  were  pressing  and  he  had  no  time 
to  waste.  He  hired  a  rig  and  told  the  owner  to  drive 
him  over  to  Canadensis  and  back  in  time  to  catch 
the  next  train  back  to  New  York. 
The  owner  shook  his  head. 

"Go  ahead,"  said  Gould.    "I'll  pay  the  damage." 

The  horse  was  put  to  its  utmost  speed  and  Gould 
had  just  one  hour  and  a  half  to  devote  to  prepara- 
tions for  his  father's  funeral.  Then  he  drove  back 
to  Cresco  and  caught  his  train,  but  he  drove  so  fast 
that  the  horse  died  from  overexertion.  Gould  made 
good  the  value  to  the  owner  without  complaint. 

Pacific  Mail  was  always  one  of  Mr.  Gould's  specu- 
lative favorites.  He  had  been  more  or  less  directly 
identified  with  it  ever  since  the  time  when  A.  B. 
Stockwell  was  its  picturesque  controller.  Stockwell 
is  the  historic  gentleman  who,  in  reciting  the  story 
of  his  Wall  street  career,  has  graphically  put  in  this 
way: 

"When  I  first  came  to  Wall  street  I  had  Sio,ooo, 
and  the  brokers  called  me  'Stockwell.'  I  scooped 
some  profits,  and  it  was  'Mr.  Stockwell.'  I  got  to 
dealing  in  a  thousand  shares  at  a  time,  and  they 
hailed  me  as  'Captain  Stockwell.'  I  went  heavily 
into  Pacific  Mail,  and  folks  lifted  their  hats  to  'Com- 
modore Stockwell.' 

"Then  one  day  Jay  Gould  came  along,  smash 
went  Pacific  Mail  and  I  went  with  it.  They  did  not 
call  me  'Commodore  Stockwell'  after  that.  Then  it 
was:    'The  red-headed  son  of  a  gun  from  Ohio,'  " 


A  CHAPTER  OF  ANECDOTES. 


297 


In  the  course  of  his  Pacific  Mail  campaigning 
Mr.  Gould  was  much  more  frequently  a  bear,  than  a 
bull.  He  used  to  say  he  had  never  found  but  one 
unerring  bull  point  on  Pacific  Mail,  and  that  was  to 
report  that  the  company  had  lost  one  of  its  ships. 
Perhaps  his  biggest  drive  at  this  stock  was  when  he 
discomfited  Leonard  Jerome  and  played  smash  with 
the  up-town  corps  of  speculators  who  made  up  what 
was  a  dozen  years  ago  known  as  "the  Fifth  Avenue 
Hotel  party." 

Just  after  that  famous  clean-out  Leonard  Jerome 
went  abroad.  In  the  course  of  his  meanderings  he 
came  upon  the  famed  Temple  of  Karnak. 

"There,  Mr.  Jerome,"  quoth  a  companion,  "are 
the  most  remarkable  ruins  in  the  world." 

"No;  oh,  no;  don't  tell  that  to  me,"  answered 
Leonard  Jerome  feelingly;  "you  ought  just  to  have 
seen  Pacific  Mail  last  summer!" 

Mr.  Gould  did  not  have  any  of  that  quality 
which  descriptive  persons  call  "presence."  No 
stranger  would  have  ever  been  impressed  by  any 
mere  look  at  him  that  he  was  much  of  a  man.  He 
was  courteous  always.  In  public  he  was  never 
known  to  get  mad,  or,  indeed,  even  to  say  a  rude 
thing,  except  it  be  on  one  occasion,  when,  with 
more  or  less  quietness,  he  remarked  to  an  ambitious 
young  gentleman  who  more  recently  became  a 
figure  in  Wall  street: 

"You  make  me  feel  very  sorry  that  I  am  so  busy. 
If  I  had  time  I'd  really  enjoy  taking  a  day  off  to 
send  you  to  State  prison," 


298 


A  CHAPTER  OF  ANECDOTES. 


Of  course,  Mr.  Gould  was  in  lots  of  scenes  where 
passion  ran  high.  Everybody  in  Wall  street  recalls 
the  historic  day  after  Black  Friday  when  Mr. 
Gould's  old  partner,  Henry  N.  Smith,  shaking  his 
finger  in  Mr.  Gould's  face,  shouted: 

"I'll  live  to  see  the  day,  sir,  when  you  have  to 
earn  a  living  by  going  around  this  street  with  a 
hand  organ  and  a  monkey." 

"Maybe  you  will,  Henry,  maybe  you  will,"  was 
the  soothing  response.  "And  when  I  want  a 
monkey,  Plenry,  I'll  send  for  you." 

In  the  book  of  Mr.  Clews  quoted  before,  is  found 
the  following:  "There  is  a  story  told  with  several 
variations,  in  regard  to  a  sensational  interview 
between  Mr.  Gould  and  Commodore  Vanderbilt. 
The  scene  is  laid  in  the  parlor  of  the  commodore's 
house.  It  was  about  the  time  that  the  latter  was 
making  desperate  efforts  to  get  a  corner  in  Erie,  and 
at  that  particular  juncture  when  having  been  defeated 
in  his  purpose  by  the  astute  policy  of  the  able  trium- 
virate of  Erie,  Gould,  Fisk  and  Drew,  he  had  applied 
to  the  courts  as  a  last  resort  to  get  even  with  them. 

"They  had  used  the  Erie  paper-mill  to  the  best 
advantage,  in  turning  out  new  securities  of  Erie  to 
supply  the  Vanderbilt  brokers,  who  vainly  imagined 
that  they  were  getting  corner  in  the  inexhaustible 
stock.  Mr.  Vanderbilt  was  wild  when  he  discovered 
the  ruse,  and  had  no  remedy  but  law  againstthe  perpe- 
trators of  this  costly  prank.  These  adroit  financiers 
usually  placed  the  law  at  defiance,  or  used  it  to  their 
own  advantage,  but  this  time  they  were  so  badly 


A  CHAPTER  OF  ANECDOTES. 


299 


caught  that  they  had  to  fly  from  the  state,  and  take 
refuge  in  Taylor's  hotel  in  Jersey  City. 

"It  seems  that  during  their  temporary  exile  beyond 
the  state,  Gould  sought  a  private  interview  one  night 
with  the  commodore,  in  the  hope  of  bringing  about 
conciliatory  measures. 

"The  commodore  conversed  freely  for  sometime 
but  in  the  midst  of  his  conversation  he  seemed  to  be 
suddenly  seized  with  a  fainting  spell,  and  rolled 
from  his  seat  onto  the  carpet,  where  he  lay  motion- 
less and  apparently  breathless. 

"Mr.  Gould's  first  impulse  was  to  go  to  the  door  and 
summon  aid,  but  he  found  it  locked  and  no  key  in 
it.  This  increased  his  alarm  and  he  became  greatly 
agitated.  He  shook  the  prostrate  form  of  the  com- 
modore, but  the  latter  was  limp  and  motionless. 
Once  there  was  a  heavy  sigh  and  a  half-suffocated 
breathing,  as  if  it  were  the  last  act  of  respiration. 
Immediately  afterward  the  commodore  was  still  and 
remained  in  this  condition  for  nearly  half  an  hour. 
Doubtless  this  was  one  of  the  .most  anxious  half 
hours  that  ever  Mr.  Gould  has  experienced. 

"If  I  were  permitted  to  indulge  in  the  latitude  of 
the  ordinary  storyteller,  I  might  here  draw  a  har- 
assing picture  of  Mr.  Gould's  internal  emotions, 
gloomy  prospects  in  a  criminal  court  and  dark  fore- 
bodings. His  prolific  brain  would  naturally  be  racked 
to  find  a  plausible  explanation  in  the  event  of  the 
commodore's  death,  which  had  occurred  while  they 
were  the  sole  occupants  of  the  room ;  and  at  that  time, 
in  the  eyes  of  the  public,  they  were  bitter  enemies, 


300 


A  CHAPTER  OF  ANECDOTES. 


"I  can  imagine  that,  in  the  height  of  his  anxiety, 
he  would  have  been  ready  to  make  very  easy  terms 
with  his  great  rival,  on  condition  of  being  relieved 
from  his  perilous  position.  It  would  have  been  a 
great  opportunity,  if  such  had  been  possible,  for  a 
third  party  to  have  come  in  as  a  physician,  pronounc- 
ing it  a  case  of  heart  disease.  No  doubt  Mr.  Gould 
would  have  been  willing  to  pay  an  enormous  fee  to 
be  relieved  of  such  an  oppressive  suspicion. 

**The  object  of  the  commodore's  feint  was  evi- 
dently to  try  the  courage  and  soften  the  heart  of  Mr. 
Gould,  who  never  seemed  to  suspect  that  it  was  a 
mere  hoax.  His  presence  of  mind,  however,  was 
equal  to  the  occasion,  as  he  bore  the  ordeal  with  for- 
titude until  the  practical  joker  was  pleased  to  assume 
his  normal  condition  and  usual  vivacity.  If  Mr. 
Gould  had  been  a  man  of  common  excitability,  he 
might  have  acted  very  foolishly  under  these  trying 
circumstances,  and  this  doubtless  would  have  pleased 
his  tormentor  intensely. 

"There  is  a  humorous  story  told  of  Mr.  Gould's 
first  yachting  experience,  which  was  recently  pub- 
lished in  the  Philadelphia  Press,  and  its  veracity 
vouched  for  by  a  living  witness  to  the  event.  It  is 
characteristic  of  Mr.  Gould  in  some  special  respects, 
and  runs  as  follows: 

"At  the  residence  of  a  club  man,  whose  reputa- 
tion as  a  raconteur  is  nearly  as  great  as  that  of  his 
Burgundy,  I  noticed  a  pretty  model  of  a  jib  and 
mainsail  yacht.  Replying  to  xny  admiring  inquiry 
the  club  man  explained: 


A  CHAPTER  OF  ANECDOTES. 


301 


"  'That  is  the  model  of  a  boat  upon  which  were 
passed  some  of  the  sunniest  hours  of  my  life.  She 
was  owned  by  one  of  the  Cruger  family,  of  Cruger- 
on-the-Hudson,  and  has  an  added  interest  from  the 
fact  that  upon  her  Jay  Gould  acquired  his  first  yacht- 
ing experience,  and  so  eventful  a  one  that  I'll  bet  he 
remembers  it  to  this  day. 

"  'Crugers — one  of  the  oldest  and  best  known 
families  in  the  state,  intermarried  as  they  are  with 
other  Knickerbockers  like  the  Schuylers,  Livingstons 
and  Van  Rensselaers— owned  all  the  land  in  the 
neighborhood  of  the  station  subsequently  named 
after  them.  A  portion  of  this  property  consisted  of 
a  brick-yard,  which  was  rented  to  the  son  of  old 
Schuyler  Livingston.  It  was  in  1853  or  1854,  and 
Jay  Gould  had  just  failed  in  the  tannery  business  in 
Pennsylvania. 

"  Young  Livingston's  leased  brick-yard  wasn't 
paying,  and  he  concluded  that  he  needed  a  shrewd 
business  man  at  his  head.  He  advertised  for  a 
partner,  and  one  day  there  appeared  in  response 
a  small,  dark  gentleman,  looking  scrupulously  neat 
in  his  black  broadcloth.  He  gave  his  name  as  Jay 
Gould.  Pending  negotiations,  Mr.  Gould  became 
the  guest  of  the  Crugers  at  the  old  mansion  on  the 
hill.  Every  effort  was  put  forth  to  entertain  him 
during  his  stay,  the  more  as  he  seemed  to  regard 
favorably  a  partnership  with  their  young  friend. 

"One  day  Mr.  Cruger  invited  Gould  to  a  sail  to 
Newburgh,  and  got  ready  his  yacht,  of  which  that 
model  is  the  reduction.    Several  of  us  youngsters 


302 


A  CHAPTER  OF  ANECDOTES. 


were  taken  along  to  help  work  the  boat.  Eugene 
Cruger,  a  nephew  of  the  yacht's  owner,  was  one  of 
us.  Peekskill  was  reached,  and  the  whole  party 
went  up  to  the  hotel. 

"All  the  way  up  the  river  we  had  noticed  that 
Mr.  Gould  was  uneasy,  shifting  about  constantly  on 
the  deck,  where  he  sat,  and  squirming  and  twisting 
as  if  to  find  a  softer  spot.  Nothing  was  said  about 
it,  of  course,  but  when  we  landed  Mr.  Gould  himself 
furnished  the  explanation.  From  the  heat  of  the 
sun,  the  yellow  paint  on  the  boat's  deck  had  become 
baked  and  chalky,  and  it  was  not  long  before  the 
little  man  discovered  that  the  dry  powder  was  coming 
off  on  his  trousers.  Hence  his  uneasiness.  He  con- 
cluded by  saying  that  he  was  afraid  his  broadcloth 
nether  garments  would  be,  if  they  were  not  already, 
ruined,  and  was  determined  to  abandon  the  trip  and 
return  by  rail.  This  Mr.  Cruger  would  not  hear  of, 
and  promised  to  obviate  the  difficulty.  We  all  ad- 
journed to  a  general  store,  and  Cruger  bought  for  two 
shillings  and  a  half,  a  pair  of  jean  overalls.  These 
Mr.  Gould  put  on  when  we  went  aboard  the  boat, 
and  expressed  his  unqualified  satisfaction  with  the 
result. 

"  On  our  trip  back  from  Newburgh,  we  again 
called  at  Peekskill,  and  once  more  the  party  started 
for  the  hotel.  This  time  Mr.  Gould  declined  the 
invitation  to  take  something,  and  preferred  to  remain 
on  board.  About  an  hour  was  spent  in  the  hotel, 
when  suddenly  Mr.  Cruger  remembered  that  he 
wanted  some  white  lead,  and  young  Eugene  Cruger 


A  CHAPTER  OF  ANECDOTES. 


and  I  went  with  him  to  the  store  to  carry down  to 
the  boat. 

'"How'd  the  overalls  work,  Mr.Cruger?'  was  the 
salutation  of  the  storekeeper.  Then  before  answer 
could  be  returned,  he  added,  admiringly:  'That  friend 
o'  yourn  is  purty  shrewd.' 

"*Who,  Mr.  Gould?  Yes,  he  appears  to  be  a 
thorough  business  man.' 

** 'Well,  I  sh'd  say  so!  He  can  drive  a  mighty 
sharp  bargain.' 

'Drive  a  sharp  bargain?'  repeated  Cruger,  all  at 
sea.    'What  do  you  mean?' 

"  'Why,  don't  you  know  he  was  in  here  'bout 
three-quarters  of  an  hour  ago  and  sold  me  back  the 
overalls  you  bought  for  him?' 

"  'Thunder,  no!'  roared  Cruger  in  astonishment. 

"  'Well,  sir,  he  jest  did  that.  He  kem  in  here, 
tole  me  he'd  no  fu'ther  use  for  'em,  that  they  was  as 
good  as  when  I  sold  'em,  an'  after  we'd  haggled 
awhile  he  'greed  ter  take  two  shillin'  fur  'em,  which 
I  paid  him.    Here's  the  overalls.' 

"Tcan  shut  my  eyes  now,"  went  on  the  jolly  club 
man,  with  a  hearty  laugh,  suiting  the  action  to  the 
words,  "and  call  up  Mr.  Cruger's  face  with  its 
mingled  expression  of  amazement  and  incredulity. 
He  left  the  store  in  silence.  Not  until  we  had  nearly 
reached  the  boat  did  he  speak.  Then  he  only  said, 
'Boys,  I'll  fix  him  for  that!'  We  reached  home 
without  any  reference  to  the  incident.  On  the 
way  back  Mr.  Gould  sat  upon  his  pocket  handker- 
chief. 


304 


A  CHAPTER  OF  ANECDOTES. 


"The  same  night  Mr.  Cruger  perfected  his  plan. 
Next  day  Mr.  Cruger  proposed  a  fishing  party.  Mr. 
Gould  declined  to  go.  He  had  concluded,  he  said, 
not  to  take  an  interest  in  young  Livingston's  brick- 
yard, and  would  return  to  the  city  on  the  afternoon 
train.  A  business  engagement,  involving  quite  a 
sum  of  money,  had  to  be  kept.  His  host  argued 
with  him,  but  for  a  time  to  no  purpose.  The  satur- 
nine little  man  had  a  tremendous  amount  of  deter- 
mination in  his  composition.  Finally  a  compromise 
was  effected,  it  being  agreed  that  he  should  put 
Gould  off  at  a  station  in  time  to  catch  the  train. 
That  he  must  catch  it  without  fail,  he  most  emphati- 
cally declared. 

''The  day  passed  on  and  we  were  off  Sing  Sing, 
when  we  saw  the  smoke  of  the  coming  train.  We 
had  been  running  free  before  the  wind,  but  immedi- 
ately Mr.  Cruger,  who  was  at  the  stick,  shoved  it 
down;  we  hauled  in  on  the  sheets  and  headed  for 
the  Eastern  shore.  Mr.  Gould  was  by  this  time  on 
his  feet,  clinging  to  the  windward  coaming,  the  deep- 
est anxiety  pictured  on  his  face.  Just  there  the 
water  shoals  rapidly.  We  were  within  fifty  feet  of 
the  shore,  opposite  the  railroad  depot.  The  time 
had  now  come  for  Mr.  Cruger's  revenge. 

" 'Let  go  the  main  and  jib  sheets!'  he  shouted. 
'Down  with  your  board!' 

"  Never  was  order  more  eagerly  obeyed.  The 
sheets  whizzed  through  the  blocks,  ready  hands 
slipped  out  the  pin  and  jammed  down  the  center- 
board,  and  in  a  second  the  yacht,  with  a  grating  shock 


A  CHAPTER  OF  ANECDOTES. 


and  shaking  sails,  came  to  a  stand,  fast  on  the  sandy 
bottom.  There  she  was  bound  to  stay  until  the 
obstructing  board  was  lifted  again. 

**  'What's  the  matter?'  exclaimed  Mr.  Gould,  anx- 
iously. Of  course  he  had  not  detected  the  ruse,  for 
he  knew  no  more  about  the  working  of  a  yacht  than 
a  sea  cow  does  about  differential  calculus. 

T'm  afraid  we're  aground,'  replied  Mr.  Cruger, 
with  a  fine  assumption  of  sadness.  'Boys,  get  out 
the  sweeps  and  push  her  off.' 

We  struggled  with  the  long  oars  in  a  great  show 
of  ardor,  while  Gould  watched  us  in  breathless  sus- 
pense, between  hope  and  fear.  But  as  we  had  taken 
care  to  put  the  sweeps  overboard  astern,  the  harder 
we  shoved  the  faster  we  stuck.  The  little  man's  sus- 
picions were  not  in  the  slightest  degree  aroused  and 
he  turned  in  despair  to  Mr.  Cruger. 

"  'What  shall  I  do!'  he  almost  wailed.  T've  got 
to  catch  that  train!' 

"  'Then,'  replied  the  joker,  solemnly,  'you'll  have 
to  wade  or  swim.' 

"Already  the  train  was  in  sight,  two  miles  away, 
and  whatever  was  to  be  done  had  to  be  done  quickly. 
As  I  have  said,  there  was  plenty  of  grit  in  the  em- 
bryo railroad  king,  and  quick  as  a  wink  he  was  out 
of  his  sable  clothes  and  standing  before  us  clad  only 
in  his  aggressively  scarlet  undergarments.  Holding 
his  precious  broadcloth  suit  above  his  head,  he 
stepped  into  the  water,  which,  shallow  as  it  was, 
reached  to  the  armpits  of  the  little  gentleman. 
Then  he  started  for  the  shore,  his  short,  thin  legs 


3o6 


A  CHAPTER  OF  ANECDOTES. 


working  back  and  forth  in  a  most  comical  fashion  as 
he  strove  to  quicken  his  pace.  The  station  platform 
was  crowded  with  people,  and  very  soon  the  strange 
figure  approaching  them  was  descried.  A  peal  of 
laughter  from  500  throats  rolled  over  the  water 
to  us,  the  ladies  hiding  their  blushes  behind  parasols 
and  fans.  The  men  shouted  with  laughter.  Finally 
the  wader  reached  the  base  of  the  stone  wall,  and 
for  a  moment  covered  with  confusion  and  but  little 
else,  stood  upon  the  rock,  one  scarlet  leg  uplifted, 
looking  for  all  the  world  like  a.  flamingo  on  the 
shore  of  a  Florida  bayou,  while  the  air  was  split  with 
shrieks  of  laughter,  in  which  we  now  unreservedly 
joined.  Then  came  the  climax  of  the  joke,  which 
nearly  paralyzed  the  unfortunate  victim. 

"  'Haul  on  your  sheets,  boys,  and  up  with  the 
board!'  was  Cruger's  order.  As  the  yacht  gathered 
headway  and  swept  by  within  ten  feet  of  the  aston- 
ished Mr.  Gould,  we  laughingly  bade  him  good-bye, 
advising  a  warm  mustard  bath  when  he  got  home. 

"Then  his  quick  mind  took  in  the  full  force  of  the 
practical  joke  that  we  had  worked  upon  him,  and 
his  dark  face  was  a  study  for  a  painter.  But  the 
train  had  already  reached  the  station,  taken  on  its 
passengers,  and  the  wheels  were  beginning  to  turn 
again  for  its  run  to  the  city.  As  Gould  scrambled 
up  the  wall,  his  glossy  black  suit  still  pressed  affec- 
tionately to  his  bosom,  the  'AH  aboard'  had  sounded 
and  the  cars  were  moving.  Every  window  was  filled 
with  laughing  faces,  as  he  raced  over  the  sand  and 
stones,  and  was  dragged  by  two  brakemen  onto  the 


A  CHAPTER  OF  ANECDOTES.  307 

rear  platform,  panting  and  dripping.  The  last 
glimpse  we  caught  of  him  was  as  the  train  entered 
the  prison  tunnel.  Then,  supported  on  either  side 
by  the  railroad  men,  he  was  making  frantic  plunges 
in  his  efforts  to  thrust  his  streaming  legs  into  his 
trousers,  as  the  platform  reeled  and  rocked  beneath 
him." 

It  was  once  suggested  to  Mr.  Gould  that  he  had 
been  fairly  successful  in  life,  and  the  inquirer  wanted 
to  know  if  Mr.  Gould  wouldn't  tell  the  secret  of  it. 

"There  isn't  any  secret,"  said  Mr.  Gould.  "I  avoid 
bad  luck  by  being  patient.  Whenever  I  am  obliged 
to  get  into  a  fight  I  always  wait  and  let  the  other 
fellow  get  tired  first." 

Any  student  of  the  Jiistory  of  Mr.  Gould's  career 
in  the  corporation  world  will  appreciate  how  again 
and  again  he  found  this  quality  of  patience  a  prime 
investment.  He  never  seemed  to  be  in  a  hurry 
about  anything.  One  of  his  enemies  has  remarked 
that  during  the  last  twenty  years  Jay  Gould  spent 
$1,000,000  hiring  lawyers  and  paying  court  fees  to 
accomplish  nothing  except  to  have  lawsuits  post- 
poned. 

And  now  the  great  man  is  dead.    For  days  after 

his  demise  the  public  press  was  full  of  tales  of  his 

career.    On  every  editorial  page  have  been  resumes 

of  his  life,  and  judgment  upon  him,  either  for  or 

or  against.    Much  has  been  found  to  say  of  him. 

that  was  good,  and  much  that  was  evil.    As  a  fitting 

close  to  this  biography,  it  is  good  to  quote  from  the 

New  York  World,  which  has  published  much  of 
20 


308 


A  CHAPTER  OF  ANECDOTES. 


interest  regarding  him.  The  paper  indeed  was  not 
his  friend,  but  we  have  had  much  from  his  friends, 
and  this  opinion  probably  agrees  with  that  of  more 
persons  than  does  any  other: 

"  Look  back  upon  his  wonderful  career.  As  some- 
times an  assassin  is  tracked  by  his  footsteps  in 
the  snow  or  by  the  drops  of  crimson  that  have  fallen 
from  his  fingers,  dripping  with  the  life  blood  of  his 
victim,  so  the  life  of  Jay  Gould  can  be  traced  by  the 
dark,  deep  stains  it  has  left  on  the  records  of  his 
time.  We  see  him  leaving  his  father's  farm  a  pen- 
niless but  determined  lad,  clerking  in  a  country  store 
by  day  and  studying  mathematics  at  night.  We 
follow  him  as  he  becomes  a  map-maker  and  goes 
forth  to  survey  his  own  and  adjoining  counties.  We 
see  him  hungry  and  unable  to  purchase  a  meal, 
kneeling  down  by  the  roadside  and  repeating  his 
sister's  prayer.  We  see  him  strike  his  first  bargain. 
We  see  him  win  the  confidence  of  Zadock  Pratt,  the 
tanner.  We  follow  him  into  the  forests  of  Pennsyl- 
vania and  hear  the  sound  of  his  ax  as  he  fells  the 
first  tree  for  a  great  tannery.  We  see  him  scheming 
for  the  control  of  the  property  and  finally  forcing 
out  of  the  concern  the  man  who  had  set  him  up  in 
the  business.  We  follow  him  in  his  partnership  with 
Leupp,  the  old-fashioned  and  honorable  merchant,  of 
New  York,  and  see  him  again  scheming  to  gain  con- 
trol of  the  entire  business.  We  see  him  entering,  even 
at  this  early  day,  into  wild  speculations  that  in- 
volved his  partner  and  threatened  him  with  ruin.  We 
hear  the  click  of  the  pistol  with  which  Leupp  in  his 


A  CHAPTER  OF  ANECDOTES. 


despair  shot  himself.  We  see  Gould  still  scheming 
and  endeavoring  to  drive  a  sharp  bargain  with 
Leupp's  daughters  and  heirs.  We  see  him  leading 
a  gang  of  ruffians  to  drive  out  of  the  tannery  the 
men  who  were  endeavoring  to  protect  it  in  the  inter- 
ests of  Leupp's  daughters.  We  hear  the  groans  of 
those  who  were  wounded  in  that  battle.  We  follow 
the  young  adventurer  to  New  York.  We  see  him 
buy  his  first  railroad  on  credit  and  clear  a  handsome 
fortune  out  of  the  operation.  We  follow  him  into 
Wall  street,  where  for  twenty  years  he  was  to  reign 
as  a  king  and  master.  We  see  him  in  Erie,  first  as  a 
follower  of  Daniel  Drew  and  afterward  as  president. 
We  see  him  at  Albany  bribing  senators.  We  see 
him  in  New  York  purchasing  judges,  defying  the  law, 
issuing  millions  of  securities,  not  a  dollar  of  which 
represented  legitimate  expenditures.  We  see  him 
plundering  the  great  property  of  which  he  was  nom- 
inally the  trustee.  We  see  him  and  his  companion, 
James  Fisk,  Jr.,  the  gambler  and  defaulter  in  a  series  of 
wonderful  stock  operations,  cornering  even  their  for- 
mer leader,  Daniel  Drew,  and  fighting  with  despera- 
tion Commodore  Vanderbilt.  We  see  him  organizing 
the  greatest  and  most  dastardly  financial  conspiracy 
the  world  has  ever  seen,  laying  its  foundation  in  the 
actual  bribery  of  a  member  of  the  President's  family, 
and  in  an  attempt  to  involve  in  the  speculation  the 
President  himself — America's  greatest  captain.  W^e 
hear  the  awful  crash  of  Black  Friday's  earthquake, 
from  which  Gould,  the  arch  conspirator,  saved  him- 
self, but. in  which  hundreds  were  involved  in  ruin 


310 


A  CHAPTER  OF  ANECDOTES. 


and  the  nation  in  dishonor.  We  see  him  now  driven 
out  of  Erie  by  the  indignant  stockholders,  headed 
by  Gen.  Sickles,  Gen.  Dix  and  Gen.  McClellan.  We 
see  him  arrested  for  appropriating  the  property  of 
the  company  of  which  he  was  president,  and  to  save 
himself  we  see  him  make  a  pretended  restitution  of 
the  misappropriated  millions.  We  see  him  corner- 
ing Northwest  and  raking  in  the  wealth  of  his  recent 
Wall  street  partner.  We  can  see  him  now  fastening 
his  fingers  on  the  great  Union  Pacific  railroad,  which 
for  ten  years  he  controlled.  We  can  see  him  betray- 
ing his  trust  as  trustee  for  Kansas  Pacific  mortgages', 
for  which  he  was  obliged  years  after  to  plead  the 
statute  of  limitations  in  order  to  save  himself  from 
prosecution.  We  see  him  securing  control  of  the 
Pacific  Mail,  the  chief  American  steamship  line. 
We  see  him  buying  for  a  few  million  dollars  from 
Commodore  Garrison  the  Missouri  Pacific,  'just  as  a 
plaything,'  but  which  he  afterward  developed  into 
a  great  railroad  system  covering  thousands  of  miles 
of  territory.  We  see  him  repeating  his  old  Erie 
tactics  in  Wabash  and  we  can  hear  the  s*tinging  words 
of  an  unpurchasable  judge  as  he  turns  his  dummy 
receivers  from  power.  We  see  him  organizing  an 
opposition  against  Western  Union  until,  the  favor- 
able rrioment  arriving,  he  secures  control  of  the 
company  and  by  a  series  of  extraordinary  consoli- 
dations make  himself  the  head  of  a  telegraph  mo- 
nopoly with  a  system  covering  the  United  States  and 
crossing  the  Atlantic  Ocean.  We  hear  the  crash  of 
another  panic.    There  are  moments  when  we  think 


A  CHAPTER  OF  ANECDOTES. 


the  great  speculator  will  fall — when,  lo!  we  see  him 
calmly  exhibiting  his  millions  of  securities  to  his 
friends.  Others  fail,  among  them  men  who  had  been 
his  partners  and  agents,  but  he  is  safe.  We  see  him 
living  in  a  palace  on  the  Hudson  and  ploughing  the 
waters  of  the  river  and  the  ocean  with  the  most 
splendid  yacht  ever  constructed.  We  see  him  at 
home,  the  personification  of  domestic  honor  and 
purity,  a  faithful  husband  and  a  kind  father,  and  we 
see  him  abroad,  hated,  feared  and  detested.  Despite 
his  record,  we  find  the  power  of  his  millions  and  of 
the  great  properties  he  controlled  felt  in  every  direc- 
tion. He  is  a  factor  in  elections.  Candidates  seek 
him  for  favors.  He  dictates  appointments  to  high 
offices.  Honorable  men  who  would  not  repeat  his 
methods  sit  with  him  in  boards  of  direction  and  are 
identified  with  some  of  his  enterprises.  Nothing 
that  the  fertile  imagination  of  Balzac,  Dumas  or 
Gaboriau  ever  conceived  equals  in  dramatic  inci- 
dents and  sensational  developments  the  career  of 
this  extraordinary  man. 

"It  will  be  observed  that  there  were  two  Goulds — 
Gould  the  man  of  affairs  and  Gould  the  man  of 
family.  In  all  his  domestic  relations  his  life  was 
pure,  his  nature  affectionate.  No  criticism  can  touch 
him  in  his  home  life.  There  he  was  above  reproach. 
Toward  the  end  of  his  life  his  dual  nature  seemed  to 
blend  into  one.  He  became  more  conservative  in 
business,  more  solicitous,  apparently,  of  the  good 
will  and  good  opinion  of  his  fellowmen,  more  care- 
kil  to  keep  within  the  bounds  of  strict  business 


312 


A  CHAPTER  OF  ANECDOTES. 


morality,  less  audacious  in  his  methods.  For  should 
it  be  forgotten  that  however  much  Gould's  public 
career  may  be  justly  subject  to  criticism,  much  that 
he  did  was  indirectly  for  the  public  benefit?  For 
instance,  he  developed  properties  that  enriched  wide 
sections  of  the  country.  No  review  of  his  career 
would  be  complete  without  this  acknowledgement." 

Jay  Gould  will  be  remembered  not  for  the  good 
that  he  has  done,  not  for  the  happiness  he  has  given, 
but  for  the  enormity  of  the  fortune  that  he  acquired. 
If  his  heirs  apply  to  better  ends  than  he  did,  the 
wealth  that  they  have  received  from  him,  they  may  be 
better  remembered.  If  they  should  dissipate  the 
fortune,  it  might  then  fall  into  the  possession  of 
those  who  would  do  good  with  it.  As  it  has  been 
before,  the  life  and  fortune  of  Jay  Gould  have  been 
a  constant  example  always  in  readiness  to  be 
brought  forward  by  those  who  find  evil  in  our  finan- 
cial system.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  better  things 
will  now  come  from  it. 

FINIS. 


